Dragon Champion of Zero
by Star AJT 84
Summary: Two powerful swords from another world… forged by two Dragon Lords and their kind; one side who serve the light while the other the darkness. The world of Zero no Tsukaima changes after a powerful battle. A new warrior class is born… the Dragon Champion
1. Legend of Holy Talon and Death Fang

**Dragon Champion Familiar of Zero**

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: I don't own 'Familiar of Zero' or any of the characters, the original Dragon Champion concept belonged to Freedom Guard in the first place but when I gave him the idea for this fic, he gave me permission to write it, so that way I won't have to write too much.<p>

* * *

><p>Prologue: <em>The Birth of the Twin Swords<em>

* * *

><p>'<em>The greatest weapon a man can wield…is his own heart, mind, body…and soul…the weapons of today…are merely part of the arsenal.'<em>

* * *

><p>In the world of Dagern…<p>

In the times of the ancient past, when the world was young, there were Dragons… ancient and majestic beasts of power, magic, and will. They soared through the skies and ruled the lands before them and conversed with the mortal beings that inhabit the lands. There were two sects of Dragons, the Holy Dragons who valued peace, compassion, wisdom, knowledge, justice, mercy, order, life, creation and freedom…and the Chaos Dragons who valued power, corruption, greed, hatred, malice, anger, death, slavery, and destruction.

These Dragons were constantly fighting one another, the Holy Dragons hoping to protect all in their charge, while the Chaos Dragons wanted to conquer, enslave, and consume those the Holy Dragons protected. The mortal denizens of the world knew this to be the War of the Dragon Lords as many Dragons on either side sold their lives dearly. They too joined behind these Dragons on either side…some did it for honor, fame, glory, justice, and duty… others did it for power, knowledge, destruction… and worse.

The realms protected by the Holy Dragons were under the stewardship of their most powerful lord, a powerful Dragon named Faldren, he taught many ancient powers to mortals, being the oldest and the first of the Holy Dragons and their unspoken leader. He too saw mortals under his care to be worthy of protection and he led his kin into countless battles with their dark brethren to prevent the destruction of all life. Under his teachings, the mortal humans, and their fellow neighbors the elves, dwarves, gnomes, and other races of the light made kingdoms of their own lands and considered the Holy Dragons as their allies and respected the power of the Holy Dragons in both times of peace and in times of war, though Faldren and his kin didn't interfere with the affairs of their wards, to allow them to make their own civilizations grow, coming to aid them when the need was great.

The realms under the watch of the Chaos Dragons were under the control of their most powerful leader Chorvax, like Faldren he taught many things to the mortals in his realms, being the oldest and first of the Chaos Dragons and their unquestioned master. However, this was where things between the two Dragon sides changed…for in the realms of the Chaos Dragons, the beings who live there are forever food, slaves, and worshippers of the Chaos Dragons Chorvax saw mortals as nothing more than pawns, food, and puppets and he and his kin fed their power and malice into their subjects without care and twisted the hearts of the beings of their lands, who fear them and worship them.

Many battles have been fought between the two Dragon races and their mortal followers for generations, and it had been a violent and bloody existence. Faldren decided to call a cease-fire and spoke to Chorvax and both leaders met in the borderlands, what was spoken between the great Dragon Lords was unknown but what was certain was that there would be no true compromise, as both leaders knew that. There would be war even if they would all leave and never interfere with the affairs of the beings under their respective charge. Thus the Dragon Lords each spoke to their kin and decided to create weapons that could be used to determine the outcome of each battle…

Faldren gathered his kin and with all of their power, one of his own metallic claws, and one of his metal scales… they created a sword of great power, the sword was unlike anything any mortal smith could forge and was made by the Holy Dragons to be unmatched by mortal means, save by their own power and that of their dark brethren… into this sword, they poured portions of their mystic powers, their blood, their beliefs and more. The sword was forged for nearly three to four years and with Faldren's last blessing the weapon was complete…

Chorvax gathered his own kin and with all of their power, one of his own metallic fangs, and one of his scales…they too created a sword of great power, and it too was unlike anything that any mortal smith could forge and was made by the Chaos Dragons to be unequaled by mortal means, save by their own power and that of their holy kin… into this sword, they poured portions of their own mystic powers, their blood, their beliefs and more. It took four years for the weapon to be completed and it was so with Chorvax's blessing.

Once the weapons were finished, the Dragons left the weapons in their most sacred place, and thus they moved aside and allowed their respective mortal followers to seek the weapons out of their own free will.

The two swords were wondrous to behold by anyone and many who sought the power of the Dragons soon sought them after. But the swords were no mere weapons; they were great reservoirs of magic and power… and were alive. These two swords chose their wielders, and to prove it…those deemed worthy by the swords each bore a mark of the Holy and Chaos Dragons and the sword would obey only it's chosen wielder and master.

Those who were able to find the swords, but were not chosen were unable to wield it in many ways. Those who attempted to wield the Holy Dragon Sword found it to be nearly impossible to lift…as if they were trying to lift a mountain. And the mystical wards and enchantments that both chose the wielder and protected the sword from harm burned those of dark natures and hearts that attempted to wield or touch the Holy Dragon Sword. The same could be said for the Chaos Dragon Sword as it too prevented those who it did not chose to wield it to even lift if off the ground. Those who were of good natures and hearts suffered paralyzing pain and fear once the wards and enchantments that guarded the Sword hit them.

After their forging, the swords saw battle in the hands of various warriors from the two realms and these battles were climactic in scale to the eyes of mortals and these were known as the Dragon Champion Wars, and each wielder of either sword was graced with the title of Dragon Champion.

In time the swords themselves gained their own names…and while the Dragons who made them the mortals of each realm made names that would long only spoke the draconian names for the swords be remembered…

The Holy Dragon Sword was known as Holy Talon, and the Chaos Dragon Sword was known as Death Fang.

The swords also took in the essences of those who wielded them; learning from their previous wielders and bestowing the same abilities to those who they chose to wield them later on in life. And it was said that those Dragon Champions were granted immortality by the swords in a way for they were able to live for many years after the forging of both blades.

In one final battle, both Holy Talon and Death Fang were wielded by two powerful mages who fought in the land known as the Dragon's Basin, in the final moments of the five days battle of swords and magic, the mages slew one another in a maelstrom of mystical energy that would have been immense and all magic would have been disrupted. However, in a blinding flash of light the battle ended and both mages were seen dead on the ground…and the swords gone.

There was panic in both realms and many petitioned the Dragons to locate the wondrous weapons, but the Dragons refused and stated that the time of the Holy Talon and the Death Fang in this world had passed, the maelstrom had somehow sent the swords far beyond even their reach and as such, only a great feat of power could bring the living swords back.

The Dragon Lords knew this and they decided to watch and wait…to see through their magic where the swords had indeed landed, it was in a realm too far away for them to open a gateway for the sword's return…but the Higher Gods deemed that while the swords were no longer there, they would have roles to play in wherever they landed…

And soon, new Dragon Champions will arise and the battle will once more be fought between the Holy Talon and the Death Fang and soon…the swords and their wielders would decide the fate of their world in ways that none, not even them can predict.

To be continued…

* * *

><p>Author's notes: Pretty short prologue eh? I'm trying to cut down on too much content every now and then so I can make use of my time more effectively.<p>

As you can see, this story is very different from my usual brand of storytelling, but there's always a first time for something right? And since you know that this is a Familiar of Zero fan fiction you can bet that sooner or later the swords will play a great role in really changing the world of Familiar of Zero.

Both swords have great powers and abilities and they have their own limitations as well, which will be explained in the coming chapters and will be shown as well in the said chapters.


	2. Summoning A Dragon Champion

**Dragon Champion Familiar of Zero**

Ch. 1: _Summoning A Dragon Champion_

* * *

><p>Things are going indifferently as usual for 17-year-old Saito Hiraga of Tokyo, Japan in the early 21st century. He had come to Akihabira to get his laptop computer fixed.<p>

Saito is just about the most above average young man one could meet in modern day Japan; above average height, weight, looks, grades, etc. He has short and unruly black hair with pale blue eyes. Today he is wearing a pair of old blue sneakers, dark blue jeans, and a casual blue-and-white hooded sweatshirt. His laptop computer in question is in his gray backpack hanging on a strap over his shoulder.

"What a ridiculous price," groans Saito, looking into his mostly emptied wallet "maybe I should get a part-time job. At least I'll get online now that it's fixed."

On his way home, he says to himself "I swear; once school's out, it's straight to cram school. What a drag. I'm sick of the boring regular everyday routine of high school life. I want something surprising or exciting happening to me."

Suddenly, Saito hears words reciting faintly: "_Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, heed my summoning and bring forth my familiar._" "Huh?" blinks Saito "Who said that?"

Then hearing a soft humming sound all of the sudden, he looks forward and finds a circular object of light having a weird shape forming a five-pointed star or pentagram in the center appearing in the middle of the road.

"What is that?" asks Saito "Whatever it is, it's awesome. Looks like some kind of weird gateway."

With curiosity getting the better of him, Saito shrugs "Doesn't look too dangerous, let's see what's inside" and then places a hand against it. He smiles slightly at the tingly feeling it is giving him, "Whoa…"

Then the circle sucks him inside and shoves him into a pitch-black void.

The circle then disappears behind him and leaving him to wonder if he's going to die.

Then all of the sudden, a vision hits his mind—

The image of a strange sword that seems to be of pure evil, as if it was purely made from evil. He then sees himself… but different… he seems older, more seasoned, and wielding a sword and wearing strange clothes with the symbol of a winged dragon on the clothes and a strange white tattoo on his arm.

'_What the hell is that about?_' screams Saito in his mind.

In his path in the void comes a black dome carrying a sheathed sword with most of its features obscured in the darkness. Grabbing a hold on the sword's hilt like an anchor, Saito thinks of how something this terrifying could happen to someone like him since he's just an ordinary high school student moving to adulthood.

'_There comes a time and place when adulthood is truly achieved, young man_' speaks a new voice in his mind.

Another sensation floods his body, but it isn't a deadly one, but more of a warm, calming, soothing, and empowering one that's unlike anything he had ever felt before in his entire life, at the same time it feels unique, ancient, and just as wise.

The second voice he heard speaks to him, somewhat clearer than before, in the darkness '_Is there anything you want to live for?_'

Unsure of what the owner of the voice wants him to say but not going to back down, Saito replies to the voice's owner "I really don't know… I sometimes wonder if I _do_ have anything worth living for."

'_Why do you doubt yourself, boy?_' asks the voice.

"That's just it," answers Saito "I'm just me; an average person just looking for his place in life, but preferably a surprising or exciting one at that. I mean there's so little I see in my life to even try to see what to do with it in the future."

'_Would you give your life for what was right? Even if you're positive it's not what you think or believe is right?_'

Saito then thinks about everything that would come from said questions as examples.

The owner of the voice stays silent as Saito next wonders if whoever it is has decided to leave him alone until he could answer.

Saito spots a deep blue glint shining before him, the voice speaks again in the same tone as before bringing faint images of things that may be in the future into Saito's mind—

'_If you had anyone you would wish to protect, will you defend them with all that you are?_'

Fighting frightening images from his mind, Saito yells out "Of course I will! If innocents were in danger I'd risk my neck for them!"

'_Would you also risk your very life? Will you fight with every fiber of your being to defend them… even in the face of death itself?_'

"I wouldn't care about what changes would happen to me," frowns Saito "and I may not know everything that would be going on wherever I'm going or not, but regardless I would fight to defend everyone if possible! Until I am sure of myself, I will fight with every bit of whatever my skill and my soul to defend them!"

The Japanese youth then sees the glow become larger and larger… and brighter than any light he had seen, and as soon as the light fades, he gasps as he sees the sword's appearance become very clear; it's unlike any sword he had ever seen before in his life—

The sword has a double-edged blade at three feet in length and it has strange markings on the middle and there were small gems on the middle as well in regular intervals and two majestic serpentine dragons that then cover the flat of the blade on either side surround the base. The hand guard is made in a way that the hand guard resembles bat-like wings, with two sharp prongs moving upward, there appears to some sort of gem under a metal sheath on the middle of the guard and the handle is covered in a scale like pattern, like that of a snake or any reptile, and the handle is good to wielded in either a single or double-handed grip. The end of the handle has another one of the dragon heads with its jaws open and a beautiful gem that seems to shimmer in different colors of the rainbow. The blade itself is made of a metal that seems to glow with a silvery white light, mixed with gold tint. The handgrip also appears to be made from pure gold or something that resembles it. And the handle itself seems to be made out of another silvery metal inlayed with gold leaf.

The weapon is beautiful and it seems to call to Saito as he reaches out and when his hands grips onto the sword handle more firmly, the voice once more speaks as the covered jewel on the middle of the handgrip opens like an eye and a glowing white stone appears.

'_You have been deemed worthy Saito Hiraga… I shall be your ally, brother-in-arms, and protector to the very end of your days. I am the Holy Dragon Sword, known to your human race as the Holy Talon… and you are now more than a mere adolescent reaching adulthood from your home country of Japan on your Planet Earth._'

"What do you mean by that?" asks Saito, as the dome holding the sword and its sheath in place vanishes "What am I now?"

'_A Dragon Champion._'

Light engulfs the sword-wielding youth…

* * *

><p>At a sizable castle-like academy with white stone and large walls protecting the inner buildings surrounded by great green trees, the sky is blue with two shining suns, and a courtyard with green grass is filled with people dressed in matching uniforms with white shirts, black pants (for men) or skirts (for women), cloaks worn over their shoulders, and a gold pendant with a pentagram inside and animals of various varieties beside them.<p>

This is Tristain Academy for mages, in the country of Tristain in the continent of Halkegia. Today is the initiation day of the second year students, the day when they summon their familiars. The type of animal of the mage's familiar will signify what their element is.

Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere, the last of the second year students to summon their familiar, is still concentrating on summoning her familiar. She is a very short girl of the age of 16, with long natural pink hair and dark brown almost chocolate-colored eyes. She's kind of smart and pretty cute, but to call her very temperamental would be an understatement. Her peers see her as an overly problematic student mage who barely shows any talent in magic or sometimes performs short-tempered flops that result in explosions.

The student body nicknames her 'Louise the Zero' because of her flops, much to her frustration.

She's hoping to summon a unique familiar: a devoted, beautiful, wise, and powerful familiar, so she can prove to everyone that she can be anything but a 'zero'.

Just as before, everyone is expecting her to mess up with the familiar summoning spell like all other spells for her.

The moment the pentagon appears, a small explosion of grey smoke bursts out from within… then a great surprise is presented to all who are witnessing it—

After the explosion, an enormous surge of magical energies is felt to everyone upon campus. The surge suddenly becomes a _massive_ explosion of magical energies and a type of energy that none of them have ever felt before. It's like an explosion of energy that blinds and overwhelms the senses of everyone in the academy in a heartbeat.

'_What is this energy? It's massive!_' thinks a male student, holding securely to his lion cub familiar.

* * *

><p>'<em>Such power, pure unadulterated power…<em>' gasps a green-haired spectacle-wearing member of the faculty overlooking the events from behind a glass window '_it's like an unending wave of magical energy. Where could that be coming from? I've never felt anything like it before._'

* * *

><p>'<em>Whatever it is, it's certainly not what I was expecting…<em>' thinks the balding teacher with spectacles overlooking the summoning ceremony '_It's different…very different and yet very powerful none the less._'

* * *

><p>'<em>That power…<em>' frowns the elderly bearded headmaster, who recently turned to see what's going on '_It's unlike anything I have felt in my life… it even surpasses my level of mana._'

* * *

><p>'<em>That level of magic is impossible!<em>' screams a student in her thoughts '_What kind of familiar could possibly have that much power? It's like Louise the Zero summoned a powerful mage to become her familiar or something._'

A young black-haired woman in a black-and-white maid outfit looks at the advent taking place, she also feels the massive amounts of magical energies unleashed "What in the world is happening?"

'_What _kind_ of familiar did I summon?_' thinks a stunned Louise, positive that her summoning her familiar is the cause of this phenomenon.

They all get their answer as a massive geyser of power explodes from the circle of light before Louise. The energy seems to tingle, as if it too is alive and as the energy falls back, all are stunned to see a massive dragon-like entity made out of pure light appear before them, it defies anything that they all had heard off and it seems to look down and then it spreads what appears to be wings. As it then begins to fade, something drops out from the light and crashes on the ground before Louise.

Saito is shaking the stars out of his head and having a small coughing fit, as he finishes both tasks he blinks to adjust his eyesight while exclaiming "Ow…" and holding his pounding head.

As his eyesight returns to normal, he sees the students and asks "What are you, cosplayers?"

The students now share curious looks at Saito.

Off to the side is the male teacher with not a hair on top of his head, wearing glasses and robes, named Professor Colbert. He is holding a notepad next to his staff and looking on in fascination.

Much to everyone's surprise, Saito doesn't understand a single word anybody is saying and vice versa.

"Hey, you!" frowns Louise, stepping up to Saito "Who are you?"

"Excuse me, but what did you say?" blinks Saito, unsure what language the pink-haired girl before him is speaking in before him.

"Speak our language instead of your made-up language, plebeian!" shrieks Louise.

"Why don't you speak _my_ language?" asks Saito loudly and slowly "Because I can't understand you!"

As soon as the two repeat their phrases a few too many times, Louise sees fit to place a controlled silencing spell on Saito.

BOOM!

Another small explosion occurs, separating the two.

Saito groans as he lifts himself to his feet, "As I was saying before, missy… I CANNOT UNDERSTAND A WORD YOU'RE SAYING!"

Louise quickly gets up, yelling "Darn! I've got to try again!"

Surprised, Saito says "Hey, wait a minute. Now I can understand your language."

"Huh?" blinks Louise in surprise "You mean that you're speaking a ridiculous language because you're not from around here after all?" then she frowns "Darn it! I've messed up again!" Returning to her original question, "Now as I was saying, who are you?"

Figuring she was asking for his name, Saito answers bluntly, "I'm Saito Hiraga."

"I'm not asking for your name, commoner!" frowns Louise. Then realization hits her like a ton of bricks, "Oh no! Don't tell me— This can't be right. You can't be my—"

The same realization comes to the other students, but rather than horror or shock or disbelief it just comes erupting out as great amusement to them as they all erupt into huge fits of mocking laughter at her. Louise's cheeks turn bright red in embarrassment as everyone are quite obviously enjoying a good laugh at her expense. Within the laughter are teasing comments—

"I can't believe we all got worked up over a commoner!"

"Just what is that~~?"

"It's a commoner!"

"She just summoned a common human!"

"A plebeian as a familiar? Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"Oh my sides!"

"As expected from Louise the Zero!"

'_What the heck do they all mean by that?_' asks Saito mentally, arching an eyebrow in confusion.

"SHUT UP!" shrieks Louise toward her fellow classmates. She then points at Saito, "This thing can't possibly be my familiar! It's a mistake! For this little mess-up, I'm going to try again!" "_This thing_ is a living creature and _it_ has a _name_," says Saito sarcastically.

"'Just a mistake', huh?" mocks a particularly chesty redhead with lovely tanned skin and dressed scandalously in her uniform and high-heeled boots, whose name is Kirche "Isn't that what you _always_ say?" Tabitha, a cute girl with short blue hair with spectacles and reading a book beside her, nods in agreement.

"Shut your mouth, Zerbst!" shouts Louise, "I said I'll fix it! I'll attempt the summoning again!"

"All right, that's enough everybody!" calls out Professor Colbert. Immediately, everyone is silenced. Obviously to Saito the older man is someone of authority. Just as the boy from another world is still wondering what is going on around him. Seeing two suns in the sky above him, the answer comes clear—

"Wait!" exclaims Saito "_This_ is a magic school?"

Everyone looks at him numbly, while Louise just frowns at him still as she answers it "Of course it is, you dumb commoner! Why would you ask such a stupid question?"

"Because we don't have magic where I come from" answers Saito bluntly "we just involve it in fictional stuff like fantasy stories, as many people don't believe in it for real."

Hearing that, everyone else but Louise is stunned.

"There's no such place!" shouts a skeptic Louise. Saito looks at her and says "But it's the truth!"

"I said that is enough!" calls out Pr. Colbert again, earning their silence. Then he turns his eyes to Saito and says "As fascinating as it is to see a person from a world where magic is but a fantasy to its natives, we have to get through this in a nice and peaceful manner." Then he turns to Louise, who is stunned to hear that her teacher believes him, and says to her "Now, Ms. Valliere. This is the holy ritual of familiar summoning. There's no such thing as 'fixing it' as you say. This young man was summoned and thus he shall serve as your familiar."

'_Serve?_' exclaims Saito in his thoughts, _'She practically kidnapped me from my home world! Why should I serve her? What good reason is there that I should?_'

"Now continue the ritual, please" orders Pr. Colbert.

Defeated, Louise dejectedly sighs out "…yes sir." Turning towards Saito, her face is in a cross between a frown and a pout with a flush to her cheeks. Saito mentally admits that she looks incredibly cute, if not a little loli. Mustering up her courage, Louise spoke, "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a commoner like you! You best be thankful!"

Before Saito could tell her that he doesn't understand, Louise steps forward and she raises a genuine magic wand which sparks at the tip before glowing like fluorescent toy. Raising her arm she taps the glowing end of her wand against to his forehead and chants "_Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, grant your blessings upon this creature and bind it as my familiar._"

Now confused and feeling a little tingly, Saito is caught off guard by what happens next. Louise stands on her toes and wraps her arms around his neck and yanks him slightly forward before planting a kiss right on his lips.

Startled slightly, Saito can only freeze in place after she backs away from him. Feeling a little embarrassed as well as confused, Saito sees that the pink-haired girl named Louise looks bitterly disappointed.

Blushing furiously, Saito asks her "What did you do _that_ for? That's my first kiss!" "HMPH! That's my line! It's not like I wanted to kiss someone like you anyway! It's just for the ritual anyway, you dog!" scoffs an embarrassed and disappointed Louise, still skeptic of his unbelievable origins.

'_She may be super-cute but, she's still an annoying and rude girl!_' frowns a disgusted Saito.

As she brags about how much she can do in front of her classmates, she drops to her knees and grabs her right forearm while cringing in apparent pain. Meanwhile, Saito is feeling another sensation for the moment but on top of his left hand and it feels like something on fire is branding against his skin there.

Saito looks at his hand and finds ancient rune-like markings etched into the skin of the top of his left hand. Much to his surprise, he can read the runes just as easily as if they were his native language just as looks at them open by a mere quarter and concentrating lightly ''_Left Hand of God?' Looks Nordic. How is it possible that I can read this? And _how_ did I know its closest resemblances?_'

Louise pulls up her right sleeve and spots a fresh new tattoo of a great winged silver dragon breathing fire. Staring at the tattoo in shock, Louise is not sure how to react to it.

All of the other magic students and Pr. Colbert also look at Louise's new tattoo in awe.

Deciding to poke fun at the pink-haired girl, Kirche smirks at her "And you say I have no shame and that I'm improper, Louise. You're such a bold little hypocrite."

"I didn't go out to get a tattoo, Zerbst!" shouts Louise, "This thing just appeared just now!"

Seeing the tattoo on Louise's arm, Saito speaks up "It must be from the magic of the sword I've got, I've received a similar tattoo on my right arm too." He rolls up his sleeve to display it to all.

Looking at Saito, everyone gasps in realization that he _does_ possess a sword. Standing there in place, everyone, save for Saito, gapes in shock at that sword. How could anyone miss a sword hanging from the back of a person in plain sight?

Everyone then looks at the dragon tattoo on his arm and compare it to the one Louise has now; they're exactly the same as the other.

Louise is somehow beginning to get scared; the teenager she summoned is absolutely no _ordinary _commoner by her world's standards. The tattoo she has now gained is absolutely similar to his, so far she feels like herself.

Deciding to break the silence, an even more eager Pr. Colbert asks Saito "I thought you said you've got no magic in the world you come from. Where did you find it?" "I've found this sword in between that magical tunnel linking from when I was last home to here in the grass before the brat," answers Saito. Offended, Louise exclaims "HEY!"

"Well," frowns Saito "you _did_ take me away from my home against my will." Then he presents his left hand, asking "And what is the meaning of these characters on my hand?"

Pr. Colbert simply says to him "I'd say they're runes that are inscribed to signify you as a familiar. The mark on your hand is also known as the Servant's Contract; you are now bound to her. The contract mark Louise has left you is rather very precise. Most familiars don't get markings like this. I don't think I've personally seen such a marking before. Although I am most particularly curious about the magnificent sword you carry, the white dragon tattoos you and Louise now bear, and even the form of the Servant's Contract you got from her. All four are unique. Can I examine your sword first?"

"Maybe some other time," says Saito shaking his head. Pr. Colbert blinks in surprise and minor dejection "Huh?" then he regains composure as he turns to his students, "Uh… this concludes the summoning ceremony. You are all dismissed back to your dormitories."

The announcement causes many of the students to begin milling about, grouping off with friends and such things the teenagers of this new world are prone to do in groups. The pinkette is still huffing about her apparent bad luck. Saito is reaching his limit on his tolerance for the daily weirdness he could handle, even if Louise would be going to hit him for breaking out.

However, he is halted in his actions when someone decides to comment on the Louise's performance—

"Congratulations, Louise" smiles Kirche mockingly "you have summoned a '_marvelous_' familiar." Behind Kirche is the blue-haired girl, Tabitha, who is still reading her book. To Saito, the chesty redhead seems a lot more attractive than she looked to him up close than from a distance. She seems to notice how he's admiring her and her smile grows slightly.

Louise notices too and pinches Saito's ear to make him stop, she growls to the redhead "Listen, Kirche, I don't need you—"

"Oh, I don't intend to do anything," smiles Kirche "…for now anyway." Turning away, she and the blue-haired girl motions with their hands before suddenly rising into the air as if their feet have wings. It's a motion that several other teenagers follow as they begin flying into the distance towards their respective dormitories. Waving down at Saito, Kirche calls to him "I'll greet you properly later! See ya!"

Saito can only gape at the sight of the various magic-using teenagers flying away. They had nothing but their clothes and they're still managing to fly like it's a completely normal thing to do. Still, it gave Saito a peek at Kirche's underwear, which she is likely wearing on purpose if the way she trying to fly ahead of and higher than the other males in the crowd are, plus she's a somewhat of a shameless exhibitionist who doesn't care who saw what she's sporting.

Reluctantly, he follows Louise to her dormitory on campus.

On his way into the academy, Saito sees everywhere around him are teenagers of various ages reading books or talking with their friends. They are all wearing the same uniform as the one Louise has on. However, many of the students are accompanied by animals, which he guesses are their familiars, and some of them are rather fantastic beasts. Louise continues guiding him deeper into the building which seems more like a posh castle than any kind of school he has ever been in. Everywhere has decorative art, sculptures, and even a few maids are skittering about with trays, laundry, or cleaning implements.

Finally, Louise brings Saito to one of the towers and into a single bedroom, which is filled with just as many expensive and artistic pieces, but just as frilly as one would expect a teenage girl would have. Since he has never been in a girl's room before, this was a little awkward for him. Still, this isn't the time for hormones since he's quite obviously far from home in a place that seems to be making very little sense and has to deal with a bratty pink-haired girl who seems to consider him quite the lower life form.

"This is the worst day ever," growls Louise, dropping onto a chair next to a small round table. She reaches to a small lamp and turns a knob to brighten it, proving it to be an oil lamp or something, which has been lit. It's just as well since it's dark by the time we've entered. "I was supposed to summon a magnificent familiar to show everyone that would talk bad about me! Instead I get a commoner!"

Later a maid arrives with a tea set for Louise, while Saito goes toward the window frowning indirectly at the pink-haired mage for ranting like he wasn't there and not giving her any sympathy.

As she is having tea, he is defiantly sitting on the floor looking out the window and not bothering to look at her as he watches the two suns sink toward the horizon as two moons, one pink and the other light blue, rise.

Deciding to humor his claim to come from another world that has no magic, Louise says to him "The summoning of a familiar determines which type of magic a person will use. There are five elements: fire, water, earth, and wind, plus the lost element of void. All magic is intimately related to life." Then she haughtily stands up behind him, saying "And so, magic users are naturally all aristocrats; nobles or lords mostly! While those who cannot use magic are merely plebeians; commoners, servants, and peasants!"

"What a corrupt system," states Saito. Catching that and taking it the wrong way, Louise shouts "What did you say?" "I said 'what a corrupt system' and I mean it," frowns Saito slightly "I don't know how I know this, but if you think you can get away with it for being able to use magic or because you're a noble than you know nothing about anything. A person with title of nobility or any such rank could take advantage of it and eventually be seen as an enemy to the surrounding people, both non-magic folk and magic users or the commoners and other nobles. I'm sorry, but I've heard of stories where there are lands where you're judged as a noble because there's something you've got while more people don't and you say you have the right of dominance. It could be magic, money, charm, intelligence, or whatever; it wouldn't matter. Face it, girl; your inherited arrogance is going to get you into trouble someday."

Louise is annoyed by that; first her familiar disobeys her, then he says he's from another world without magic, then he claims that he finds the sword on his way when she summoned him, then she got marked for some reason when she did him, and now he says that being a mage or an aristocrat doesn't make her his better.

Saito then says "A more important question now is how I can return to my world or, to humor you, where I originate."

"It's impossible!" frowns Louise slapping him on the back of his head, "familiar summoning is a one-way spell!"

"If I was summoned by a bratty master like you," says Saito "I would have every right to disobey and disrespect you. Especially since you took me from my world without prior knowledge and against my will, which essentially and effectively is that same as kidnapping. Also if you think I need to learn my manners, I think I know them pretty well, it's just that you don't deserve them!"

"How dare you!" snaps Louise, she goes for his sword "And you shouldn't even carry this thing around wherever you go! Know your place familiar!"

Pulling the sword from the sheath, but to the pink-haired mage student shock, she yelps in surprise as the sword falls to the floor with a loud clang and she releases it. This catches his attention as well, "Huh?" The pink-haired mage reaches for the sword again and tries to lift the weapon. But she can't even begin to lift it, as it doesn't even move a single millimeter off the ground.

After several more attempts, including a few disenchantment spells, levitation spells and such ending in explosive epic failures, Louise gives up and glares at Saito with her hands on her hips "Alright, you dog! How are you able to carry this blasted sword? For me it's like trying to move my whole school!"

Saito looks at his new sword, the Holy Talon, and grabs it, surprisingly he is able to lift it off the ground easily in one hand "Well, to me it's almost weightless."

Somewhat panicky, Louise asks "About that earlier comment you made about us nobles, would superhuman attributes such as strength account as well?" "Well," thinks a surprised Saito before nodding "Yeah."

Unable to handle the level of stress, Louise goes to her bed and says "I've had enough of today. Be grateful that you're being spared, dog." She takes her clothes off and gets into a frilly nightgown.

Still angry at her as he turns away and slides Holy Talon back into its sheath, Saito says "Whether or not you refuse again, I'm still a boy you just met and you're a girl taking her clothes off in her room as she goes to bed. I don't care if you're above because of your rank as a noble; it's still not right in my standards. Also where am I going to sleep?"

"There," says Louise, pointing to a pile of straw next to her bed.

Looking at it with disgust, Saito stomps his way to it and picks it up in a bundle. Louise is confused, "What are you doing?" "You obviously don't care about my health, so I'm moving outside to the balcony to see how heartless you really are" answers Saito.

Louise frowns, "You are still my familiar, regardless of anything. Understand?" "I am not some butler or a canine, so I don't care and I still refuse!" roars Saito, closing the window behind him. Louise then grits her teeth at his behavior, "Fine! Expect no breakfast for you tomorrow for not even having the obedience to wash my clothes!"

Some time passes in the night, from the window he sees how cute Louise looks in her sleep, then he steels his resolve, reminding himself of her bratty attitude as he drifts into his sleep in the cold air.

As poor Saito dreams about native food familiar to him in his sleep, while Louise drifts away in her respective sleep to relieve herself of the stress, the two remain unaware that the Holy Talon sword comes alive once again as the gem that forms the pommel begins to glow in various colors and the covered glowing stone once more appears though only half-open as the tattoos on their arms glow and a hazy white light surround their bodies as they sleep.

In the following morning…

Saito wakes up from his supposedly horrid slumber, finding himself unusually comfortable for his position, save for his clothes feeling unusually tighter suddenly, and a small plate with delicious-looking bread and a cup of water before him and a blanket and pillow on his bed of straw turned mysteriously into a more comfortable weaved straw mat.

Saito then says to himself, "Maybe some of the maids here took pity on me and brought me food and some proper comfort out here."

Saito then notes in surprise that his voice deeper than he remembers last. Grabbing the piece of bread and walking into Louise's room, he turns to the mirror to see what's wrong with him all of the sudden. He prepares himself for the worst—

Saito is then deep in shock as he looks at the mirror, and wide awake as well, and he has a very good reason to be surprised as he looks at his face, but at the very same time it isn't his face.

'_What the heck had happened to me?_' he asks himself that very same question once more as he tries to see if it is indeed his face.

The color of his skin, hair, and eyes are still the same, but they seem more exotic and with more strong features added. His face seems smoother, more angular and more masculine, like he just aged a few more years by some miracle, giving him smooth skin and firm muscle. His face is now more well defined, a feature normally found on a young adult in their early twenties.

It's as if he had somehow gained the face of a young adult man of 22 years of age; though it is far from ugly, it was like that of a handsome full grown man. He then notes that his black hair seems longer, and the black color seemed more like obsidian and has slight silver highlights. Not to mention when he turns his head, his hair on the back is longer now, almost reaching the middle of his shoulder blades. He looks at his eyes, they are the same, but the blue color seems to have become deeper and stronger, with silver edging around the irises as well. Surprisingly, they seemed slightly reptilian-like.

He notes his newfound height as he compares himself from previous advents: he remembers being 172 centimeters tall the previous day, but now he's at precisely 193 centimeters.

Noticing that his clothes are tighter now for some reason, he takes off his sweatshirt to see what else has changed, he is stunned beyond belief at the sight of his new body—

His arms have become more muscular, but slim and smooth. He tightens his grip and notes that his grip is a lot stronger than before, he feels his arms and finds his muscles are now hard and tough, almost as if he had spent the sum on seventeen years in the gym with weights in one night, and the tattoo of that silver beast is more well defined and more elegant looking.

He looks at his torso and abdomen and sees that he has well-defined muscles on them too: not too bulky and not too thin, but a well-balanced combination of both. His torso looks smooth and all the muscles are in the right place and form for his age, though resembling someone who had really worked hard, he looks at his abdomen and noted the six pack he had miraculously developed seemingly overnight, when he turns around to look at his back, he also notices the well-matched muscle structure as well.

He takes off his lower pants and noted that his legs look like that of a gymnast, a runner, and a martial artist at the same time, well-formed and well-proportioned muscles all over, he even decides to look into his boxers, and he blushes bright red as he sees his 'package'.

'_Well,_' blushes Saito '_no woman is going to get bored with me now._'

Then remembering the little girl who summoned him into this mysterious new world, he angrily turns to Louise in her bed, ready to throw the accusing finger at her and scold her for changing him overnight.

What he gets to see in the bed as he removes her blanket instead is an equally and seriously changed version of the girl named Louise—

Louise looks like she she's just entered her twenties at a height of nearly 172 centimeters. He remembers her being super-cute last time but now her face and features are perhaps angelic.

Her body build is also increased: shapely and well formed. Her arms are now slender but well formed and defined. Her legs, although nice and perfect as before, have become even better: well formed, long, shapely, and slender.

Her breasts have also grown from flat to size that could match that of small watermelons each: large, round, and ample. Her waist is also slender and very smooth. Her hips are now more well-shaped and perfectly proportioned. All in all, the build itself has become a perfect hourglass overnight.

Her skin is still a beautiful creamy color, yet it's now smoother than ever. Her face has gotten a lot more mature and more appealing than youthful and cute than he had remembered her face last; Saito would describe it to be enough for a man to stare at practically forever and have other beautiful women take notice of her, or even humble the most conceited beauty just by looking at her, as she has smooth skin, full red lips, high and well-formed cheekbones.

Her long pink hair now has silver highlights similar to his, giving him no doubt that when she'll open her eyes, she will have silver highlights in her pink irises, which may have become slightly reptilian-like as well.

One of the more painfully obvious features he's come to notice is that her sleeping clothes are now just too tight to bear with her new body. Such as her newly enhanced bosom making her nightgown look like a semi-transparent white tank top and her panties' elastic completely snapped under her enhanced hips and derriére's bigger size.

Somehow he knew it was partially her involvement in his newly discovered changes, but apparently she's unaware of the changes that happened to her as well.

"What happened to the both of us?" asks Saito out loud.

She snores cutely in her sleep as she drools, "That cookberry pie is so yummy…" even her voice has changed as well. "Munya…"

"Snoring away and totally oblivious!" frowns Saito "I wonder how she'll get used to this?"

Louise then stirs, revealing her new pinkish chocolate irises with silver edging as she opens them, waking up as she stutters and yawns "Wha~~? Wha~~! What is it~?"

Sarcastically, Saito greets her "It's morning! O noble Mistress Louise!"

Spotting the strange new face in her room, she asks him "Who! Who are you!"

Then she notices the tightened sleeping clothes on her body—

"WHAT HAPPENED?" shrieks Louise "HAVE MY PANTIES SHRUNK?"

She looks at herself in the mirror, and to her next shock; she finds herself mostly unfamiliar.

"If this is me…" stutters Louise, before feeling her new impressive bust "than I'm… I'm… _huge_!" she comically falls to the floor in surprise.

'_If this is an anime series,_' thinks Saito '_I'd be laughing my butt off at these antics._'

Regaining whatever sense she had, Louise looks into her reflection again "Oh my goodness! My body has transformed!" then she looks at the transformed Saito, although not recognizing him at first, she cautiously asks him "Are you the familiar I've summoned yesterday?"

Saito frowns at her, "If by 'summoned' you mean 'kidnapped' and by 'familiar' you mean 'unwilling and unpaid slave', then yes."

"It _is_ you!" gasps Louise, having realization dawn upon her "What has happened to me?"

Looking up in thoughts, Saito says quietly "I guess I can rule out you transforming both of us into our present forms. I'd personally rule out something in your atmosphere being the cause of mine."

Louise frowns and is about to demand him to repeat what he said, when all of the sudden her nightgown bursts into silvery green flames.

"FIRE!" screams Louise, as she gets up from bed running like a chicken with its head cut off, screaming in bloody murder "FIRE!"

Without knowing it, the flames spread to other places in the bedroom, including Saito's own clothing and her dresser drawers.

Louise screams some more, "MY CLOTHES! MY CLOTHES! MY CLOTHES ARE ON FIRE!"

"What about _my_ clothes, you bratty mage!" exclaims Saito, attempting to douse the fire on him.

Feeling the flames he's trying to extinguish with his hands, he doesn't feel any burning pains.

"Huh?" blinks Saito "That's strange; I've touched the fire and I'm okay."

Louise also stops in surprise, as the mysterious flames shrink away, she looks down at her nightgown and discovers that it's become bigger and is untarnished rather than ruined by fire or her mysterious growth spurt. She checks her drawers and finds that all of her clothes have grown to a perfect fit for her newly enhanced measurements.

Saito checks his clothes and discovers that the magical flames have expanded them to fit perfectly for the new size of his body and have a few added new features: metal shoulder guards on his sweatshirt's shoulders, a saintly depiction of a white-colored dragon over the left breast area, his sweatshirt's sleeves looking capable of detaching without need of ripping, knee-pads, elbow pads, and his sneakers are almost boot-shaped. Saito's backpack and its contents are also transmogrified.

Louise asks no one in particular "What's going on? Fire Magic is not connected to alchemy or transmutation." With realization hitting her like a ton of bricks, Louise gasps with widened eyes exclaiming out "It's that sword you carry! It's got magic within so powerful that even a commoner can become rated as a noble! That magic is capable of all this! And the only worst part is that I don't know anything about it!"

"This is getting weird," says Saito.

* * *

><p>In his office, Pr. Colbert is doing research to discover the meaning of the tattoos that are on Louise and Saito's arms and the other worlder's sword after discovering the meaning of the mysterious runes given to him by Louise when she formed the contract. So far, he has found nothing.<p>

Hearing the doors open, he closes his book to hide his research and turns to those looking for entrance, only to find two people he has _never_ seen before yet seem familiar for some reason plus a few maids, most of them enchanted by the handsome man with a sword hung from his back. He asks them, "I am sorry, but are you two transfer students from another magic academy?"

The pink-haired young woman gasps in shock and faints immediately, signaling young man to catch her. The young man says to the teacher "For your information, professor, as unbelievable as it sounds this woman is Louise and I'm her quote-unquote familiar."

Pr. Colbert's eyes widen in amazement, he then recognizes the sword hung over the young man's back. He asks, "What happened to you?"

Some time passes as they explain that Saito's mysterious magical sword, the Holy Talon, is apparently responsible for them. Louise has regained consciousness before their explanation so she could take part and they could privately discuss the matters at hand.

Giving them breakfast with him in his office as they converse, Pr. Colbert tells them to explain just small details of the changes they've experienced so he can discuss a meeting with the headmaster.

* * *

><p>Walking outside, where there are several outdoor tables set up with white linen tablecloths with several of the students drinking tea with friends and their familiars. Most of them were dogs, cats, and other things. Louise, now somewhat convinced that her familiar is from another world, tells Saito soupcon bits of information about Brimir, the founder of magic of this world from over 6,000 years ago, and that the continent of Halkegia is ruled under the queen. She even explains to him that today's the day that the students and their familiars are supposed to get to know each other.<p>

So far she has learned that her familiar is an innocent victim of circumstances outside of her control to gain an object of great power within the interval or half-way point of her summoning spell.

Kirche is looking for Louise to tease with Tabitha following her, along with their familiars: Kirche's is a large red lizard-like creature with blazing fire at the end of its tail and horned frills on its head she named Flame and Tabitha's is a large blue-colored dragon named Sylphid, who has a large pair of wings, solid green eyes, and a frilled head.

Looking at their familiars, Saito asks in his thoughts '_Why couldn't have she summoned a creature like one of them as a familiar instead of _me_?_'

Eying the sheathed sword hanging from Saito's back, Kirche immediately has her attention torn away from looking for Louise and directed toward the tall handsome stranger that just entered the courtyard. The guy is taller than even her and as she looks more closely, she sees the deep blue eyes with what appears to be silver lining and the long obsidian hair with slight silver high lights, his face is smooth, masculine, and rather very primal in a male sort of way and he gives a warm, calming, and strong aura, and his clothes seems to hug his frame a bit and she can see the muscles that he has and she could help but blush slightly as she continues to study him. He looks so powerful, but there seems to be something familiar about him and his mysterious pink-haired companion whose beautiful appearance just screams a potential rival for her.

She thinks to herself, '_That guy's hot! I hope he's not taken, because as much as I don't want to say it… the girl he's with is more attractive than me, better looking than even my mom. She's got even bigger breasts than _mine_. But why does they both look familiar to me for some reason? I don't recall meeting such a hotty like him or a potential threat like her before._'

Tabitha, slightly interested in the boy as well, is trying to tear herself from the book she has in hand and attempt to look at him from a distance.

Kirche walks over to Saito and asks "Excuse me, handsome, but have you seen a man with a similar sword to yours or did you take that from him? He's the familiar of Louise the Zero."

Uncontrollably, Saito blurts out "Actually, we _are_ them." Louise frowns at him, "Stupid dog!" Then both slap a hand over their mouths.

Kirche laughs a little, "Oh come on, there's no way you are those two; Louise is not as pretty as your friend here." She leans her chest into him, showing her cleavage better to him "As for Louise the Zero, it's a nickname I've given her myself, since that's practically describes her magical talent. It caught on since then. Most of us doubted she'd summon a familiar."

Pretending to be a stranger, Saito says "So Louise doesn't have much skill with magic so she screwed up the ritual and got a common non-magical human with a sword instead of a normal familiar?"

"Yep."

"Odd," comments the bookish Tabitha.

"Huh?"

"She means that he's the odd point," translates Kirche. "As far as we know, Louise did the ritual correctly so we're not too sure how it came to be that he was summoned." She licks her lips and plays with the plunging neckline of her blouse. "That makes him quite the mystery. I would love to investigate, alongside you…"

Saito blushes a bit, trying to maintain self-control. Kirche knows just how to use her body so to bring out the maximum hormonal effect from a boy and Saito's far from too proud to admit that she is doing a fine job on him.

Louise is about to explode, but the bell rings, catching Kirche's attention. Compared to the world of pain Louise would treat Saito, Kirche's treatment was almost like touching heaven. However, that slice of heaven remains out of his reach as the bell alerts both Kirche and Tabitha of something else.

"Poo! Classes again," huffs the sultry redhead. Finishing her tea, she stands up "Well, it was nice meeting you, sir. I look forward to another talk." With a saucy wink, she gestured at her familiar. "Come, Flame." Then she whispers in his ear, "I'll be waiting for you later in case you're interested, and I promise you a better time." She then taps her but to his unattended side before leaving with Tabitha and their respective familiars.

As soon as they are gone, "What's her problem?" frowns Louise, before turning to Saito "You almost blew our cover!" "Same to you, you arrogant uptight pink-haired bratty woman-child!" counters Saito, before he stomps away from her.

Hearing the closest description of Louise that they remember, most of the students turn to the direction of the transformed Louise and look in awe and doubt.

Everyone shrugs, knowing that surely a familiar and their master should get along splendidly, for example Kirche and Flame are nigh inseparable and it has only been a day since they met. If that gorgeous pink-haired woman is Louise, some divinity must be taking pity on her and her laughable familiar.

Louise had thought that after a good night's sleep as to get rid of the tension and a firm hand in the morning things would begin to smooth over. All of the teaching and advice she got on familiars had seemed to agree with that. But to her continuous misfortune, more unorthodox and frightening complications and mysteries are added to the mix and increases the tension between her and the human she summoned.

As soon as he is out of Louise's way, information suddenly finds its way into his mind concerning the basic knowledge of magic in this world; such as dot-class to square-class mage level significance. Then a strange flying one-eyed purple creature floats in front of him and forces him to bump into a maid.

The maid, whose name is Siesta, is a young woman about Saito's age with cute short black hair, bluish grey eyes, smooth whitish skin, a very nice figure, and a gentle persona. She is dressed in the maid outfits worn by all the maids on campus. In hand there was a small tray that was carrying a small white plate carrying a slice of cheesecake, but bumping into her causes the dessert to fall off and toward the ground. Then luckily through some miracle, Saito's reflexes kick in and his hand snatches the plate and uses it to safely catch the dessert.

All onlookers applaud to the 'performance' during their cake and tea with friends and familiars.

Saito is surprised, '_Did my attributes and abilities get a boost as well?_' "Um," stutters Siesta "thank you."

Placing the plate with cheesecake on the tray, Saito shrugs "You're welcome."

She looks at him carefully with a light blush that later turns bright red and spreads to her face, she turns away slightly saying quietly "You must be the commoner familiar with the sword that Ms. Valliere summoned."

Saito's eyes widen by a fraction in surprise, "How did you figure that out?" "I've witnessed your transformation when I decided to help since your argument with Ms. Valliere last night, it was surprising. Also, you still have your magic sword with you; I've seen it produce magical light that touched your tattoos and triggered your transformation into your present forms" answers Siesta.

"You're very fortunate to get away unscathed by your master, also very brave to stand up for yourself;" says Siesta, with a great deal of concern for him "if you anger her too much, it could bring down dangerous consequences. Commoners just cannot stand up to the nobility."

"Is that a fact here?" asks Saito, earning the maid's nod. He scoffs, "I don't see any of them doing anything noble; just a bunch of spoiled brats." A few students hearing his words get reactions ranging from slightly irked to just plain confused.

She asks him, "Are you a noble from where you're from?" "No," replies Saito shaking his head "I was originally a non-magic person like you I'm afraid. My sword, the Holy Talon; is the magic behind it. Even I don't know its origins and it fed information into my head that I didn't know about until I picked it up after choosing me."

"Choosing you?" gasps Siesta in surprise "You mean to say that the sword is alive?" Saito nods in response. Siesta asks, "What would happen to those who are not chosen by your sword?" "As far as I know currently," answers Saito "it increases its own weight to a point where they cannot even move it by one millimeter. I guess that even the seemingly meekest being could be chosen by it."

"Speaking of the meek," continues Saito "we never got to introduce ourselves by name." Siesta smiles as she introduces herself, "That's true. I am Siesta." "Nice to meet you, Ms. Siesta. My name is Saito Hiraga."

Siesta tries to pronounce his name, as it's different from all known nationality to her, Saito politely chuckles "Just call me Saito."

"Oh!" gasps Siesta "That's right: I was on my way to serve Master Guiche his lunchtime dessert!"

"Don't worry, Siesta;" smiles Saito "just lead me to this Guiche and l shall deliver it to him for you."

"Oh, thank you" smiles Siesta "I'll be sure to get you something to eat as well."

Siesta points to the direction of Guiche's table to serve him his cheesecake. The place is certainly fancy enough for nobility, which went far to explain why the whole castle looks so good and why the students are so snobby. There are clean circular tables and of course many of the chairs are filled with students who were apparently waiting for their lunchtime cake and tea. Some are still eating lunch, talking about their studies or bragging about their families. If it weren't for the obvious snobbish speech and some practicing their minor spells at the table, Saito could have mistaken the students for regular people his age.

Saito is glad that they had gotten over the novelty of him being Louise's familiar, but now he's getting a few stares of curiosity toward him as if he's new on campus. When he overhears some students suggesting that the commoner appearance of Louise's familiar is just a transformation they would be comfortable and not so intimidated because he could be a dragon or some other powerful magical beast in disguise, while their fellow classmates are dismissing the idea.

Give them the right event and they'll be in for a surprise.

At Guiche's table, Saito sees three people having an argument. The first is a cute girl with long brown hair who seems very humble but pleasant, whose name is Katie. The second is another girl who just screams noble with her long blonde hair done up in large curls or long Victorian ringlets with the rest tied by a large ribbon, whose name is Montmorency, Guiche's girlfriend. The last is Guiche, a boy who with short golden hair perfectly windswept. His face is devilishly handsome, almost close to Saito's newest level, and the collar of his uniform is unbuttoned to reveal a bit of his chest. He's even holding a rose in his hand and posing dramatically as if the two girls arguing with him are physically wounding him. All in all, he looked like an unfaithful conceited pretty boy in need of some refinement.

"Why didn't you tell me about Miss Montmorency?" demanded Katie. Montmorency is also displeased, she snaps at her boyfriend "You've been putting the moves on this first year, haven't you? Fess up already!"

"You misunderstand!" sighs Guiche, posing quite dramatically "Why? Why must you speak of such things?" One could almost see the beautiful flowers appearing behind him. Saito then realizes that there are beautiful flowers behind him in some kind of vase. No doubt from the girls' viewpoint, he has that beautiful image rising up from behind.

His posing isn't working anymore, as Montmorency is even angrier "I knew you were two-timing on me!" "Have you?" demands Katie. "Now really?" sighs Guiche, twirling his cloak "What makes you think such things? What proof do you have?"

As Guiche twirls around, Saito spots a stack of love letters falling out from the folds of his cloak and land on the floor. Guiche doesn't notice, but Saito of course isn't going to turn down the chance to teach a noble mage a lesson. Waltzing over while avoiding the attention of everyone else, Saito scoops up the letters and eyes them. They are rose-print envelopes addressed to Guiche. However only some of them are from Katie and another lot are from Montmorency, while the rest are from many different girls.

"Hey, playboy!" calls Saito, catching the attention of the two girls and Guiche "You dropped these!" Then hiding a confident smirk while looking through the letters, he asks the blond-haired noble "Wow, you really get around, Guiche. Who are Julia, Integra, Elizabeth, Bianca, Rosanne, Yuufa, and Amelia?"

Unfortunately for Guiche, it was the last straw that broke the laden camel's back.

Guiche pales and gulps while the two girls begin to gather steam and finally have their faces turn into pure righteous feminine fury. Both girls give off what mighty war cry before their hands smack Guiche's cheeks at a fast pace. The boy hits the ground while both of the slighted young women stomp off to do whatever girls do to get over being jilted.

Saito laughs at Guiche's pain "Ha ha ha! You should reap what you sow! It serves you right, snob!" Then after dropping the letters on Guiche's table, Saito shrugs "Well, that's my mischievous but good deed for the day."

He looks around and saw that a small ring of students watching what had happened and they look rather shocked. If it was about what Guiche had done or Saito's intervention, he cannot be sure though. Saito thinks about helping Siesta finish serving the cakes, and maybe, if he is lucky, he could be a few extra slices of cheesecake for him to eat together with her.

Guiche, however, is getting up as if demanding retribution from Saito "You, sir…"

Saito turns, looking at Guiche with stern eyes "Yes, _Master_ Playboy?"

Taking insulting addressing form as a signal that he is a really big peasant who doesn't know his place, a frowning Guiche says to him "I hope you are prepared for the consequences of your actions; a plebeian showing such attitude towards an aristocrat. You are simply just asking for trouble with that kind of tongue."

"Oh," responds Saito sarcastically "I'm _really_ scared."

Everyone looking on is getting really confused. Several are looking on in rapt fascination, no doubt sensing that violence is about to come down. Guiche merely grits his teeth while his cheeks flush in rage at Saito's very clear and intended insult.

"You should be…" says the cocky blond mage student, producing a red rose from his sleeve "I shall teach you some manners, even if I am going to have to beat them into you." Then pointing his rose at Saito, he declares "I challenge you to a duel!"

The academy's student body gasps in disbelief.

Grabbing a crisp unused white napkin from a table nearby, an unfazed Saito slaps it across Guiche's face "I accept. When and where?"

"No~!" cries out a young woman's voice. A distraught Siesta suddenly tugs at Saito's left arm, trying to drag him away. "You can't duel a noble! I know you're different from before. But even still, a commoner can't beat a noble!" She starts to cry, "Just apologize and maybe he'll let you go!"

Hearing a familiar voice saying '_Teach the spoiled young man some manners, master._'

"What's to apologize for?" asks Saito righteously "It's _his_ own fault for deceiving all those girls." The students gasp again while Siesta's tears begin to grow larger.

Hiding the slight redness from the napkin's swiping slap on his cheek with his rose, Guiche replies "I was feeling generous today since you are new here and all, but for such an action reserved only for high-ranking individuals such as nobles and knights, the duel must commence regardless even if you do ask for forgiveness for your slanderous words." Saito can tell that Guiche must've had half a mind to impress an admittedly cute peasant girl until his napkin slap struck him and the barb. Playing it cool, Guiche says to his opponent "We shall meet outside in one hour hence, in Vestri Court."

"I'll be there," frowns Saito in a nod.

Shrugging, Guiche walks off while all of the other students begin to talk excitedly about the upcoming duel. Others immediately dart off, no doubt to tell their friends about it. Guiche must have made it an hour from that moment so that the whole school would hear of it and bring about a huge audience for him to show off to. Still, Saito has no more cares. It would just mean more people would see just how he is in the right for what he did rather than he is.

"You'll be killed…" murmurs a heartbroken Siesta.

Saito looks at her with curiosity, "Wha?" She looks like she's crying as if he's already dead. "YOU'LL BE KILLED!" She turns to run away, but Saito reacts quickly. Reaching out, he grabs her arm and abruptly turns her around to face him. Her cheeks are already blotchy and the tears aren't stopping. Strangely, she reminds him of a kicked puppy.

Suddenly, he hugs her and says in her ear "I will win, Siesta." Then he walks away, leaving her catatonic.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Louise was stomping away from her familiar as well, deciding to give herself some extra space away from him since she already has too much on her mind; first her familiar turns out to be an ungrateful commoner from some foreign land, then he turns out to be chosen by a powerful magical weapon even she cannot lift or convince otherwise, then their bodies both undergo an impossible transformation, then magical fire transform their belongings, and now she has to keep her transformation a secret from the school until further notice and leave them thinking she ran away while someone else is taking her place.<p>

But it wasn't over; as soon as she was out of Saito's way, strange images from a different world suddenly finds its way into her mind; such as basic technology and lifestyles of some completely different culture. It was too much for her, forcing her to lose consciousness.

As she comes to, she finds herself on one of the benches outside. Then she hears some of her fellow schoolmates speak—

"Did you hear? Guiche has challenged a sword-wielding commoner to a duel out in Vestri Court."

"He did? Heh-heh-heh! That must be one dumb commoner!"

"Why does the sword part sound a bit familiar to me?"

"When is it?"

"In a few minutes in the Vestri Court. Want to go watch?"

"Yes."

Louise feels the blood drain from her face as she has the thought of her familiar dueling Guiche. The blond womanizing flirt may be a dot-class Earth mage, but even with the changes she doubts Saito will stand a chance against him.

"That idiot!" frowns Louise, running all the way to the Vestri Court.

Then she hears a strange voice saying '_Teach the spoiled young man some manners, master._'

Louise pauses in her tracks at that, but then ignores it.

* * *

><p>Saito arrives to the Vestri Court on time, standing a few paces away from Guiche and staring at his opponent face-to-face. He had figured it should be simple to find the Court since it should have more than enough room for a duel. He silently thanks his luck that he's in the right place and at the right time.<p>

On his way there, he tries having a mental conversation with the sword since he figures that the voice that tested him of his worthiness comes from the magic weapon itself. By his luck again, it's proven true. The sword, Holy Talon, tells Saito that it is responsible for the changes to Louise and him but the conversation and explanations should be saved for later, so it gives him some minor bits of information.

The young new Dragon Champion stands facing Guiche several yards away. A large audience circle around them, eager to watch the duel.

"I commend you for not running away" smirks Guiche "If nothing else, you are a brave commoner." "As if I'd run away, I'm going to clip that arrogance down to size," shrugs Saito. Staring at Guiche, he gets down to business "What are the terms of victory and defeat?"

"The first to surrender or be knocked out will lose," replies Guiche, stepping away from his fellow students so they wouldn't get them involved "Fair?" "Fair" nods Saito.

Louise shows up, screaming "STOP IT! KNOCK~ IT~ OFF~!"

Both duelers look out to the sidelines and saw the transformed Louise cram her way through the students before coming into the open field.

Saito groaned at seeing Louise, '_Of all the times she could have decided to hunt me down, it had to be now?_'

Tabitha has her hands cupped over her ears, saying "Too loud."

"Her again?" asks Kirche, still not recognizing Louise "Who is she anyway?"

"Why are you asking me?" asks Montmorency, "Guiche would soon flirt with her if he lays eyes on her and I wouldn't have that."

"Stay out of this," hisses Saito, glaring at her. Louise growls before breaking the dam wide open "HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY ME, YOU STUPID DOG!"

Then a chubby student with an owl familiar speaks up, "Wait a minute!" catching everyone's attention as he speaks out loud "That black hair on that commoner, that sword, that uniform on that young woman with pink hair, that shrieking, the relationship… could they be Louise the Zero and her sword-wielding familiar, but transformed?"

"Of course we are!" roars Louise. Then she realizes that she completely revealed their identities the whole time, "Oops!"

"What?" asks an utterly confused Guiche.

"WHAT?" exclaims the student body, in disbelief.

* * *

><p>"WHAT?" exclaims the headmaster, Osmand, in disbelief.<p>

"What?" exclaims Mr. Colbert, worried for the sake of all.

* * *

><p>"Zero?" gasps Montmorency in disbelief, "How did she get so big and beautiful overnight?"<p>

"It… can't… be…!" struggles a dumbfounded Kirche, her eye twitching.

"Transformed" simply says Tabitha, completely hiding the fact that she's just as surprised.

Saito shakes his head and sighs, "The jig is up." "Apparently," gulps a revealed Louise, meekly spilling the beans "when I made a contract with my familiar yesterday, he was in the middle of an unforeseen transformation, so I ended up getting transformed too."

"WHAT?" gasps the students "IT IS LOUISE?"

"It's got to be a trick!" struggles Kirche. Tabitha shakes her head and simply says, "Checked."

"Anyhow—" exclaims Louise, directing toward Saito "duels are forbidden! So I demand you apologize to Guiche this instant so we can forget this foolishness!"

"It's definitely Louise" deadpans her fellow classmates.

"Denied" reply Guiche and Saito in unison.

Louise is about to explode when he notices that Guiche is showing that he's not in the mood for accepting any apologies at the moment, from a commoner or not.

Everyone else gapes at this surprise. No doubt to them this stems from how familiars are supposed to be completely obedient to their masters.

Slightly enchanted by Louise's magically enhanced beauty and body for a second, Guiche says dramatically "My dear Louise, your disobedient familiar just shown me his nerve to swipe at accepting this duel. Since duels are only forbidden between two nobles and he is not, your veto to this duel is nil."

"Louise," says Saito seriously "this duel is a matter strictly between myself and Guiche. You have no say in it."

"NO SAY!" she shrieks in response.

"It's too late for apologies, Ms. Valliere!" snaps Guiche gently "If this strong-willed commoner familiar of yours wishes to taste punishment from a noble, so be it."

"Shut up," frowns Saito "In this duel, I'm not a commoner and you aren't a noble. Right now, we're just two men putting our pride on the line and fighting for what we believe is the right thing. Forget status, forget stations and simply duel."

"How eloquently put," nods Guiche "If you spoke like that when we first met I may have mistaken you as a fellow noble. However, now our battle must begin." He raises his rose as a pool of light surrounds him. He then waves it as a single petal drifts off and floats towards Saito. "Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Guiche de Gramont. My runic name is Guiche the Bronze!"

The rose petal lands on the ground several feet in front of Saito before it flashes and from the ground appears something new—

It's the same height as Guiche, and covered in armor despite showing all of the curves that a woman could've and eloquently decorated with flattering armor and wings on its helmet but it was completely made out of bronze. In its right had is a simple spear with a decorative tip that seemed razor sharp. The only way he could tell that it's not human is by the limbs and how thin they were. No human save for perhaps an anorexic model would have limbs that thin. They look like they would belong on a puppet of some kind.

"My Bronze Golem, Valkyrie, shall be both my weapon and your opponent" finishes the blond fop with a twirl of his rose.

'_He can create medieval robots from the petals of his rose?_' gasps Saito.

'_Master_' speaks Holy Talon '_just take the punch of that construct to see the new limits of both yourself and it._'

The Valkyrie charges in, landing a punch against Saito, decking him to the ground and having Holy Talon slip from its sheath, near the other students.

"Saito!" cries Louise, running to him. In the background, Montmorency covers her eyes as she quietly screams.

"Now do you understand?" frowns Louise, kneeling to the downed other worlder's side "A commoner has no chance of winning against a mage!"

"Are you kidding me?" smirks Saito, who gets up looking like the punch did not faze him at all "Despite the metal in that golem, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would!"

Louise's eyes widen in surprise, as are the rest of the peanut gallery, and Guiche blinks in disbelief that he's facing a commoner tough enough to shrug off his Valkyrie's metal punch.

"Besides," sneers Saito "I cannot stand people who look down on others because they think they're all that."

The audience is getting really interested in the match.

"Fine," says Guiche, not faltering "I'm sending more Valkyries for you to face." True to his word, more petals fly off his rose before transforming into more Valkyrie bronze golems.

Saito says with a cool and more confident tone of voice, "I hardly think so, Guiche de Gramont."

Siesta sees some of the students poking at Saito's sword, even one of them is trying to lift it but failing. Realizing how heavy the sword is and how he was able to carry it from its sheath hanging behind him, she tells the discovered fact to Louise, who turns to see that perhaps even without his sword her familiar may win against Guiche after all.

Fearing for her on-off boyfriend's welfare upon the undeniable possibility of the strength of Louise's familiar, Montmorency cries out to him "Forfeit the duel, Guiche! That familiar of Louise has the strength of a monster!"

Saito punches a Valkyrie in the face and then the golem shatters upon his fist's impact.

The audience's responses vary—

"How is he doing that?"

"Are you sure he's just a commoner?"

"Maybe he's a noble from his home country?"

Louise does a perfect impression of a fish at the sight of it.

Kirche is downright surprised at such a feat of strength, her expression quickly turns to being full-blown impressed.

The stoic Tabitha's eyes widen by a fraction at the sight of it.

Seeing this, Guiche is starting to lose his cool "Who _are_ you?"

"As I introduced myself yesterday," says Saito, calmly and coolly "My name is Saito Hiraga, one of the many common modern humans of the country of Japan from another planet called Earth in another solar system obviously far away." Then he tests to see if he has heightened agility, he flips over to the Holy Talon and picks it up in his right hand. He says to him, "But now I have another title—"

He holds aloft the Holy Talon, calling out "By the virtue of Faldren!"

Flames of silvery green bursts from the blade before erupting and spreading over Saito's body, however, like before, instead of burning or hurting him in any way, the flames just fade into him.

"I AM HIS CHAMPION!" calls out Saito with his voice echoing everywhere, loud and proud.

Guiche's eyes widen in awe and confusion, "Faldren's champion? Who or what is this Faldren?"

The extra flames that are hitting the ground around him do the reverse of what normal fire would do in full force and high speed: the grass grows greener and thicker, any seeds or cutoff branches of some plants dropped on the ground suddenly sprout spontaneously into small trees in the ground. The onlookers to this event admit that it's remarkable.

"Most people are not meant to be polyamorous," frowns Saito "and you, playboy, are no exception."

Guiche stutters, "Y-you don't frighten me, commoner! Valkyries, attack!" His extra golems charge to knock out Louise's powerful sword-wielding familiar.

Although Saito, and a few people in the audience, notices the runes on his left hand glow since he started holding Holy Talon, he continues on with the duel, with a remarkable burst of speed, slicing the golems he passes like butter.

Saito thinks, '_What happened? It feels like I'm more familiar with you, Holy Talon. The sensation from that punch completely faded and my feels light ever lighter than before!_' '_It would seem that runes that signify you as Lady Louise's familiar gives you the ability to become a superb master of any armament you wield_' replies Holy Talon.

Louise looks on in surprise, '_My magical specialty is war-related? And that sword talks!_'

In a moment of desperation, Guiche throws a rose petal that quickly turns into a sword, which he quickly takes hold of, and attempts to block the sword slash aimed for him.

Unfortunately, the block is in vain as the Holy Talon cuts through Guiche's sword like butter, leaving him with nothing but a bladeless hilt.

"EEK!" cries out Guiche, finally showing his fear as Saito turns to face him again. The blond fop of an earth mage quickly waves his rose yet again, this time bringing out nine new Valkyries to use against Saito and creating a new sword in hand if he gets too close to him. They don't even wait for the order to attack before they charge against Saito.

Saito speeds through the new platoon of Valkyries in a flash once more, having them slide into diced-up pieces of their former selves to the ground 3 seconds later as he stops before Guiche.

Guiche panics, runs backwards until he crashes into the wall and drops both his rose and his sword upon collision as he falls to the ground. Sitting up and then looking up, he sees the tip of the Holy Talon staring down at him between his eyes, with him backed against the wall and Saito coldly looking at in him in the eye.

"Do you wish to continue?" asks Saito "for I am asking this only once."

This is all the prompting the young earth mage needs, he slumps his head down in shame and cries out "I yield! I YIELD~~!"

"Then I hope you learned something from this, Guiche" nods Saito coolly as he re-sheaths his sword "If you want to be someone of my higher calling and caliber, you should learn self-control and man up."

Saito turns away from Guiche and walks back towards Siesta and Louise. Both girls are just staring at him, but for Siesta it's straight-up awe while for Louise it's pure shock. To Saito, having a cutie like Siesta looking upon him in awe does his ego wonders. Seeing Louise being unable to talk down on him for once is just as gratifying. Having stunned everyone else into silence is just sweet icing to an already awesome cake.

Looking at the students looking back at him, Saito frowns "Move."

In response, they quietly part to make way for him and Louise like the Red Sea to Moses' command.

He walks through the clear path until he looks at Siesta and Louise; he motions his head to allow them both to follow him back to Louise's room. Both girls comply with his gesture.

"You're actually good," smiles Louise "as expected of my familiar."

"Don't get over yourself, Louise" says Saito coolly "you still look down on me and you don't know everything I've gained. You're reckless, hot-tempered, quick to judge, and albeit not fit of the word 'noble' in every one of its definitions, as well as someone who has kidnapped me. As far as I'm concerned until further notice, my title of Dragon Champion overrules your right to be my master and my better. Before then, if you say otherwise, I'll be sure to punish you ten times over how you'll punish me and I don't care who your family is or how important they are."

Siesta is a little worried how Louise would respond until she sees the noble in question gulp nervously in response.

Saito then says softly indirectly to them both "On the other hand, thanks for coming to me as well as caring for me."

Siesta blushes at that while Louise smiles a little.

Finally breaking the silence from the audience after going to the side of her defeated boyfriend, Montmorency gasps out "No… No way… he won."

Then everyone bursts into cheers for the victorious Saito.

Students break out into quite excited chatter about his abilities and his sword—

"That was incredible!"

"What an amazing guy!"

"If he was a commoner before yesterday, he's got the rights to be a noble too now!"

"Square class? No, maybe an octagon class."

"I don't care either way!"

"He was cute before but now he's drop-dead gorgeous!"

Kirche looks at Saito one last time, saying huskily "He's strong and manly as he is cool…"

* * *

><p>In the headmaster's office, Osmond and Pr. Colbert discuss matters they have witnessed.<p>

"Old Osmond, he actually won…" gasps Pr. Colbert.

"Hmm…" ponders Osmand aloud "what great powers he has. I wonder… he used to be just a normal boy before coming here and he just received that sword of his on the way within her spell. But now I wonder… he and Miss Valliere must be different from before. Have you checked with them?"

Pr. Colbert nods "Yes I have, I even used a detect magic spell on him, his sword, and Miss Valliere to confirm the level of their powers. I even researched last night and just now for information concerning the sword and the dragon tattoos they both bear. I've found nothing about the Holy Talon, the boy's magical sword, or the tattoos they've been given by it. I told them both have a meeting with the two of us this afternoon." "That is good to here" nods Osmond.

"More importantly," speaks Pr. Colbert again "concerning the runes I have run across, I think we should report this to the palace as soon as—"

"NO!" shouts Osmond, interrupting the teacher "WE WILL NOT! THERE IS NO NEED TO YET!"

Then, Osmond says calmly "It is still a complete mystery why that type of familiar summoned by Miss Valliere became Gandalfr. An even greater mystery that should be a concern as of now is his Holy Talon. What is it? Where does it come from? Who made it? How old is it? Why did it choose him before he even became the legendary familiar for void mages? Sure, it sounds sacred and saintly. But what is it really?"

"Even still," speaks Pr. Colbert "he's still a new Gandalfr since the first legendary familiar who is said to been used by Brimir the Founder and who was able to wield any armament and could defeat an army of one thousand by himself, a familiar so powerful that no ordinary mage would stand against him!"

"That is exactly why we will keep this case a secret" frown Osmond.

"But sir!" pleads Pr. Colbert "this is the biggest discovery of the century; a Gandalfr in our the modern world who originated from another world! While the Holy Talon itself is the discovery of the millennium in the entire world!"

Osmond says to the middle-aged teacher "If you would slow down and think about it carefully, what do you think will happen if we hand our the next legendary Gandalfr, his master, and that mysterious sword to those fools at the palace! Court advisors have too much time on their hands and would like nothing better than to start a war with that power. The power of that sword is still unchecked. Until we confirm everything between the two concerning the sword, we will keep a lid on this. As for the matter of the familiar himself, I will take care of this incident personally; no further objections." "Understood, sir!" bows Pr. Colbert.

The two don't realize that someone is spying on them.

To Be Continued…

* * *

><p>Author's notes: Well… things are going to be a bit different now. Now what exactly is a Dragon Champion?<p>

Dragon Champion is the term given to those chosen by the two swords, forged from the leaders of the two Dragon races, Faldren and Chorvax, Holy Talon and Death Fang. They embody the mystical, martial, and physical aspects of the two sects of Dragons and their power, and philosophies. Meaning that in case of the Dragon Champion who wields Holy Talon is a fighter who protects those who are in danger and seeks out injustice or evil, and punishes them according to the state of their crimes, like a warrior of honor. In the case of the Dragon Champion who wields Death Fang, the wielder of Death Fang is a fighter who seeks power and strength regardless of how many lives are either destroyed or lost in the process, or how many victims fall to it's blade and the wielder of Death Fang revels in bloodshed and death.

The weapons provide exceptional powers and abilities to their wielders respectively such as magic, martial skill and more gained from the powers imbued into the blades and the essences of the previous Dragon Champions who wielded either sword in the past.

Saito has acquired Holy Talon and as you have read, is chosen as a Dragon Champion, but that certainly doesn't mean that Death Fang is not far behind. As to who will be chosen as the wielder of Death and the evil Dragon Champion?

We shall see as well.

And as to pairings, well, that's up to me…I MIGHT try the harem approach if anyone's interested in that.


	3. Dragon Champion and Level Zero Mage

**Dragon Champion Familiar of Zero**

A/N: I don't own the concept of Dragon Champion, the author codenamed Freedom Guard does, I thought up the idea for this story and gave him the suggestion, he suggested that I'd write it, I told him that it's _his_ concept and I wouldn't do it without his permission and he unexpectedly gave it to me on a silver platter like he was a waiter who said I made an order I didn't make. I also don't own 'Familiar of Zero'.

I also want to work on my other fan fictions, such as 'Kamen Shinobi Naruto', 'Dvau Loka Avatar', and my other Other World crossover fan fictions, but please read and review them too.

Ch. 2: _Dragon Champion and Level Zero Mage_

After effortlessly defeating Guiche in their duel, Saito sits down on his woven straw mat on the balcony Louise's room while the mage in question who summoned him is having tea served by Siesta.

He asks his new partner and weapon, '_So, did you transfigure the straw I was sleeping on into a straw mat, Holy Talon?_' '_I did,_' replies the sword '_after reading up on your native country and your world when you took hold of me, I came across such information of your native country that would suit you better than the simple pile of straw Lady Louise has given you. But you should really thank Ms. Siesta the maid for the bread, water, pillow, and blanket for it was her who gave you those. Believe me, I've seen her come in last night._'

Louise asks them "How is it that I can hear you two communicate inside my head?" "It's called telepathy:" replies Saito "the ability to communicate and perceive through thought rather than the common five senses."

'_Apparently, Lady Louise_' speaks Holy Talon to her '_when you were forming your world's form of master-familiar contract with my master, you've absorbed some of the Dragon Fire energy while I was in the slow process of analyzing him and transforming him; hence your new appearance, the transmogrification of your belongings along with him, and your telepathic link with us both._'

After a moment of silence, Louise shrugs "Makes sense."

Not understanding why Louise is talking like that, Siesta asks "Excuse me, Ms. Valliere, but why are you talking to yourself like that?"

Saito says to the maid, "Remember when I told you that my sword, Holy Talon, is alive?" Seeing the maid nod in response, he answers "It can communicate with some people through thought." "Oh!" replies Siesta in understanding.

Louise ponders a bit before asking, "You said you never had magic in the world you originate, except in fictional stories for sake of fun, is that completely true?" "Yes" nods Saito "although I guess there are just some who claim to have magical powers but we don't have any proof." "So until now you were never capable of using magic." "Not until I retrieved Holy Talon from what we've seen so far. And his power is evidently in a completely different style from yours. Also technically I didn't use any magic in the duel with Guiche." "That's true."

Siesta immediately perks up at Saito's frank confession; he didn't use one spell of either source against Guiche even, meaning a commoner like her did indeed stand up to a noble and win, even though he is both transformed and wielding a powerful magical weapon. This all is in her opinion is good news to her.

The door opens to reveal a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties wearing rectangular glasses over her eyes; she is probably a teacher judging by her attire. Knowing her, Louise gets up "Yes, Ms. Longueville?" "Ms. Valliere," says the glasses-wearing teacher "the headmaster and Pr. Colbert wish the presence of you and your familiar."

"Oh boy" sighs Saito.

—

At the headmaster's office, after gazing at the transformed Louise for a few minutes, Osmond gets down to business and says to Saito "We'd like to examine your sword, Holy Talon, thoroughly, young man. We've spent some of our time researching about that sword and found absolutely nothing and we thought maybe you could help."

As Saito is about to respond, his Holy Talon suggests '_Have this discussion with Lord Faldren, master, in a secluded part of the forest._'

Hearing this, Louise speaks for her familiar "Headmaster, Holy Talon just request that the four of us should meet with its creator and lord, Faldren, in the forest."

The two older men's widen their eyes in surprise and look at each other. Then they shrug so they can agree and look at this mystery, and if there was one thing the two professors of magic like… apart from sexy women (Osmond) and working with strange subjects with basic known functions and principals (Colbert), it is mysteries.

—

In the middle of the forest, with no one else in sight to spy on them or to accompany save for their horses, not even the headmaster's secretary, Ms. Longueville.

Of course, one other person is spying on the scene purely out of curiosity: Siesta.

"So," speaks up Pr. Colbert "where will we find this Faldren, Ms. Valliere?" Louise replies "I have a feeling that we don't have to; my familiar's learning a spell from his sword to bring him here. Since he's still a beginner Dragon Champion himself, with his sword he can only summon a manifestation of its high-ranking master and creator, Faldren, so we can speak to him."

Pr. Colbert is getting excited, pulling out his notepad "This is getting so interesting!"

Saito places the sword on the ground and speaks in a dialect not recognized by the two older men.

"I wonder what he's saying" frowns Pr. Colbert lightly as he writes down the pronunciations of each word of the incantation he's hearing from Saito. Louise's eyes widen as she says to her teacher "I can understand the tongue perfectly, and it's scary still to me."

Saito then calls out "FALDREN! COME FORTH AND SPEAK YOUR LORE!"

The sword suddenly glows deep white and a blast of energy is unleashed in a heartbeat, which nearly blinds Osmond, Pr. Colbert, Saito, and Louise, forcing them to cover their eyes. The four all feel the shockwave first, this feeling is followed by many mages in the area, and the neighboring non-magic folk are caught off guard as well as they all look for the source of the sudden energy wave.

When the light fades, the four look and gasp as they see the sword is still glowing but they are for the moment not concerned with the glowing sword, but rather more concerned by the thing that just appeared before them—

They are in the presence of a colossal dragon, but not just any dragon: a dragon lord.

'_By the Founder, that's the biggest dragon I have ever seen!_' gasps Pr. Colbert.

'_I have never seen one like it in either the records nor my entire life!_' gasps Osmond.

Louise, fearing for her life, begins praying at the first sight of the great dragon.

Saito is staring at the magnificent entity before him.

From within the underbrush she's hiding within, Siesta, fearing for her life as much as Louise is, begins praying at the first sight of the great dragon.

The five look at the creature that's as tall as a three-story building and is covered in shimmering golden scales that glow gently in the suns and the scales are rimmed with silver edges. Save for its head, wings, and tail, it has four limbs that each has five toes with razor sharp metallic like claws each, though one claw in the right fore limb is missing. There is a beast-like elegance and beauty about the creature and it has wings that have folded down, it has a long tail with several bony plates on it that taper into a spearhead-like tail tip and a long made of golden hair with silver mixed into it runs from the base of the tail tip to the back of the head, which is on a long gracefully shaped neck. The head is like that of a reptile and there is a giant glowing diamond on the forehead on the creature and a pair of four horns on either side that flow backwards. The dragon creature curls its lips upward to reveal rows of _very_ sharp teeth and its deep rainbow-like reptilian eyes were directed solely at Saito.

The teacher and headmaster have no idea what sort of dragon this is, so they quickly take battle-ready stances with their staffs in front of the two youths. Osmond says to them, "Get behind us, Ms. Valliere, Saito!"

The dragon then opens its mouth and amazingly enough, it speaks, and in a royal tone that demands respect and attention yet in a patient and calm manner "Peace elder and sir, I mean you and the young ones no harm. There is no need for violence."

"Did that dragon just speak?" asks an amazed Pr. Colbert.

"That dragon just spoke," says Osmond in awe.

"Amazing!" smiles Saito in awe.

"He talked!" blinks Louise, stunned out of her mind.

Siesta is in awe of the dragon lord who just talked to them.

"Who are you?" asks Osmond, deciding a political approach would be wise as it looks like an intelligent creature.

"I?" asks the dragon, "Forgive me, I guess I forgot my manners since it has been a while since I was manifested, however I would like to see the wielder of Holy Talon… step forward, wielder."

Saito complies with the dragon lord's wish.

The dragon looks to Louise, "You too, young maiden."

Louise steps up to the dragon until she's at the side of Saito.

They don't know why, but the great dragon's voice holds no threat, anger, or malice, and they step away from the older mages, despite the misgivings the men had. As soon as they're before the creature, it moves forward and Saito now finds himself and Louise staring at the creature face to face, they both feel great fear and anxiety, hoping that neither would show and get them into trouble with the dragon.

After a few moments, the creature moves back and grins, "You, young man, are not exactly what I expected to be the new wielder of Holy Talon. A young man transported from his native world where science is dominant and creatures like dragons and magic are considered myth or make belief into another where it's all real instead. Regardless, the sword is wise and foresighted when it came to choosing wielders, even those who appear ordinary. Surprisingly, the young girl who summoned you as a familiar according to her world's common style of magic has also gained a bit of our magical energy of Dragon Fire, when you marked each other."

"Wow" blinks Louise, surprised at the information the dragon shared with them. Saito gapes "Whoa!"

"As to who I am," speaks the great dragon "I am Faldren… Dragon Lord of the Holy Dragons and chief creator of Holy Talon. Though in this case I am only a manifestation and therefore I cannot last long in the material plane. I see that you have questions, you may ask them now if you both wish and I will answer them to the best of my ability."

"Holy Dragons?" gasps Pr. Colbert, writing everything down. Osmond speaks "I would guess that would mean you're a powerful race of dragons from a different world from ours or young Saito's that are on the side of all that is good."

"You would guess correctly, elder" nods Faldren, "Our races of dragon are being born of the earth and magic of the world. We serve as living reservoirs of magic and energy and as such, we have long life spans, thus we can learn and retain memories at a very large capacity. I have lived for over 25,000 of your human years now and I am the oldest of my race, and as such, I have learned many tongues apart from my native Draconian tongue, I have also learned much in terms of art, history, warfare, combat and more."

"25,000 years?" gasps Pr. Colbert in surprise "Then your kind and these powers surpass even Brimir the Founder, he who brought magic to our world only 6,000 years ago!"

"You would be correct, sir" nods Faldren.

Louise asks, "Uh… Faldren sir?"

Turning to her, the mighty dragon lord asks "Yes, child?"

"Do you…" she stops as she lets out an audible nervous gulp "well… eat… other beings… like me?"

Appalled at the thought, Faldren says "Oh! Good gracious, no!"

Siesta, in her hiding place, and Louise sigh in relief.

Faldren continues "I find the idea of eating mortal beings such as yourself distasteful, and a grievous sin, though I partake in feasting with humans such as yourself in my human disguise. I must admit that your race is quite creative when it comes to feasts."

"You can turn into a human?" gasps Saito in surprise.

"Of course I can take the appearance and form of a human of any age, young wielder" replies Faldren "For you see, many of my kin have such a talent and we use it well when the needs suit us, apart from our powers and abilities. We Holy Dragons love justice, compassion, mercy, life, knowledge, and more and we preserve peace as best we can, and that is why I am here to talk, not to fight. However that does not mean we are weak creatures and we can fight as fiercely and deadly as any fighter."

Louise smirks in confidence, "Seeing how Saito here fought that flirt Guiche until he yielded in their duel, I shouldn't be surprised."

Osmond sighs, "It's good to know that this power would be used just to herald peace instead of war. The palace council of our country would want to use it and I can't have that."

"I understand humankind's inner conflict of war and peace within their nature," nods Faldren to the elder "for that I empathize with you."

"Are there others like you, great dragon lord Faldren?" asks Pr. Colbert, still documenting.

"Yes, sir," nods Faldren "I rule several large flights of Holy Dragons along with my own brood, but we are not the only dragons who exist in our realm, nor our world."

Remembering the Yin and Yang concept from back home, a comprehending Saito asks "There's a equally powerful race of dark dragons from your world that are evil, ungodly, and sacrilegious who desire war and chaos?"

"Yes, wielder" nods Faldren to the Dragon Champion "the other race of dragons from my world are not the same as my brood and my flights, for they follow the path of evil and darkness. We call them the Chaos Dragons. Our respective realms have a very long and difficult history, if you wish I will tell you as much as I can, and then I will explain to you what is Holy Talon."

"We do wish to hear," nod and bow the four.

The Dragon Lord then spins a tale before the four and tells them the history of their kind and their wars with their dark brethren—

"We have been at war with our dark kin for millennia and for a good reason, while my kin and I rule the realms we live in with peace, justice, knowledge, freedom, hope, compassion, mercy, and duty, the Chaos Dragons and their leader Chorvax, who like me is the oldest and wisest of his kin, rule their realms through slavery, corruption, hatred, greed, malice, anger, death, destruction, power, hunger, and evil. They have twisted the minds and hearts of their mortal followers who fear and worship them. They see mortals as pawns, food, and toys to play with to amuse themselves and not worthy of being treated any better.

"They sought to do the same to those under our protection and we have fought back in kind and many of our kin and theirs have died in these battles that tore the lands and remade them as well, mortals under our respective realms also fought each other as well. The battles lasted for generations upon generations and we were tired of the countless slaughters and the battles that were fought between us Holy Dragon, them, and our respective followers. As such I called for a cease-fire and spoke to Chorvax in the borderlands.

"There we realized that there would be no true compromise even though I had convinced him that while he would revel in the slaughter and death, he would soon wipe out all of his followers and what sort of empire would he rule if all were dead? While we knew that even without our presence, mortals would continue to fight one another, we no longer wished to fight and rip the lands to shreds. So we all found an alternative.

"I gathered my kin and with one of my talons and one of my scales, and our combined powers, wills and magic we created a sword of immense power and poured into it portions of our magic, essences, martial and physical prowess, and our beliefs and philosophies. By the end of four of your human years since then we created the sword and I blessed it with my blood and fire. I placed the sword in our most sacred place and mortals who wished to seek it out with pure hearts, souls, and minds were able to wield it. The sword itself was alive and it was true judge on who would wield it.

"In time, we gave each successful wielder the title of Dragon Champion, and as you might have guessed, that sword was given a name by those who couldn't speak the Draconian tongue… Holy Talon, the Holy Dragon Sword."

Everyone looks at Saito's sword again in awe and amazement that living sword of holy power had chosen young Saito, an ordinary boy from a different world, to wield it.

"How did Holy Talon end up in the path when I came across it when Louise here summoned me here?" asks Saito.

Faldren answers "A vortex of spells occurred when both of our respective and most recent Dragon Champions struck a final blow to the other sucked both their swords away from our world and in the middle of mystical space, waiting for new champions to hold them."

Pr. Colbert asks "When you said 'swords', did you mean that Chorvax created a similar weapon to yours at the same time?"

"He did," nods Faldren, "during the same amount of time, he and his kin gathered and combined their own powers, wills, and magic with one of his fangs and one of his scales as they poured into it portions of their mystic powers, their beliefs, their martial and physical prowess, and more to create a sword of terrible power, which is called in your common tongue… the Death Fang. When they were finished, they placed it in their most sacred place."

Everyone grimaces at the thought of Death Fang, and the possibility of it coming to their world.

"What can the Holy Talon do?" asks Osmond "What is it capable of?"

Faldren explains, "Holy Talon is a living weapon as you already know… due to our combined mystical powers and it being part of my body and imbued with my blood, fire, and magic, it cannot be chipped, damaged, or broken by any mortal means or weapons. No forge known to mortals can break it and it can cleave and slice any other metal like it was nothing but mere clay or cloth, and any form of armor can be easily cut with one swipe. As it is filled with magic, which is quite different in nature and application from your world's standards of magic that you're used to, it can cast spells and mystical forces that can overpower most if not all foes, magic can be used to heal, attack, summon, defend, and conjure. It is also able to absorb the essences without harm from each Dragon Champion that has wielded it in the past."

"I'm the first Dragon Champion from my world," gasps Saito in realization "but yet at the same time the first one to set foot here on this world."

"Correct, wielder" nods Faldren "for in the world from where it was forged, many warriors of various powers and skills have wielded Holy Talon in battle. When called upon, these essences can fill the current wielder with the power, skill, and knowledge of all previous Dragon Champions who fought with the Holy Talon in hand. It also has powers to call forth Holy Dragon allies of various powers, when you call them, the Dragons you summon will aid you in whatever venture you wish and will fight with you in battle."

Louise looks at Saito in amazement, "You could've countered Guiche's bronze golems with great warriors who fought many battles!" "Hey, it was a matter between two men! I chose to fight by myself and stuck with it by choice!" frowns Saito.

Faldren smiles at Saito and Louise's antics and so did Osmond and Pr. Colbert, as the mages are getting used to the Dragon's presence. Siesta is in awe of the events, Saito now has a serious edge over normal mages and the nobles of this world and that would be painful to deal with.

Faldren speaks to them again, "However wielder, I must caution you on several important matters concerning your ownership of Holy Talon, just because you are the wielder, doesn't mean you have free reign with the weapon."

Turning to the mighty creator of Holy Talon, Saito says with a bow "I promise never to use it for selfish reasons, Lord Faldren. I am sorry for using it in a duel between a young noble of this world, it was just that he was trying to get retribution for me exposing him as the two-timer he was to two girls he was with."

"So I saw from Holy Talon's memories of said duel," nods Faldren "he, like many aristocrats of this world, was getting arrogant and naïve with their status because they could use magic. For you to duel him to instill some humility into him and to chastise him so he could learn temperance was all worth it."

"Wow…" gaps Louise.

Looking at Louise, Faldren says "And you, child, should be careful; the title of 'dog' or anything else like that toward the wielder of Holy Talon is an insult most undeserving. The wielder who indirectly empowered your body is not an animal you can control or discipline for wrongdoings, he is a sentient living being of the same species as you. To address in such a way to the chosen wielder of Death Fang maybe, but to the Holy Talon's wielder, never. In the world I originate, to be able to use magic never a matter of social standing; in many realms even the lowliest peasant could be a very powerful mage."

Feeling smaller and meeker than she ever felt before in her entire life, Louise says "I was just following the existing state of affairs regarding social and political issues of my world, concerning the roles of aristocrats to plebeians and masters to their familiars. I guess said arrogance you've mentioned and the overindulgence is unfitting, I guess I've been treating him like a useless nonhuman slave too, and also we had no knowledge of you before now when Holy Talon arrived. For that… I'm… sorry."

Faldren nods calmly "Since you are a young woman good in heart who has yet to see with her own eyes the other possibilities and not accustomed to them, you are forgiven. The right of magical aristocracy of your world is yours as is your right for the wielder of Holy Talon to be your familiar, but not your servant; I feel that his title as Dragon Champion itself should overrule the social ranking completely, making you his first follower. The result of both makes you both a pair of destined partners of equal status for the same cause."

Saito and Louise look at each other in amazement; originally they were at each other's throats because of the status quo of this world concerning magic-using aristocracy and non-magic peasants and master-familiar relationships, now under Faldren's word they are equals.

"By the way…" asks Saito "what happened to me and Louise anyway?"

Faldren grins once more, as he already knows just what sort of topic Saito is about to bring up "You speak of the sudden physical changes of you both? Are they not to your liking? I had thought that a young, strapping lad like you and a wonderful young lady like her would appreciate them. They will certainly help in getting attention from the opposite gender, and if both of you are lucky… in more ways than one."

Louise smiles with pride, "Well, this certainly gives me an advantage over a certain classmate of mine who looked down on me and called me 'Zero' for a long time."

Saito blushes bright red at that, and Osmond coughs a bit as he admits that with those new looks of theirs, Saito and Louise still give even other cute girls and handsome lads like Guiche each a run for their money. Pr. Colbert writes on a separate sheet of paper of other possibilities to Louise and Saito's physical changes.

Faldren laughs gently and speaks "However, your physical changes are not merely for aesthetical purposes, wielder and follower. In order for the wielder to be able to utilize the full power of Holy Talon, his body had to adapt and change in order to handle the physical, martial, and mystical requirements of the powers of the Holy Talon. Normally such changes are subtle, but since he is of the schoolchild variety in his world's version, they are now more pronounced. When she unconsciously absorbed the energies when she marked him, her body also adapted at the same time with him. Their respective physical changes will remain with them until they reach adulthood, which is not too far away from now. The physical changes will also help the wielder in utilizing the essences of the previous Dragon Champions that he may summon to aid him, and also your dragon allies as well, though he will still need to train to master the higher level essences and spells. The changes in his magic-using follower is not limited to physical means as well, a reserve of my Dragon Fire is within her, granting her the ability to wield all sorts of magic from my world, to achieve that she too has to train in the knowledge of magic spells from past Dragon Champions and from the knowledge of Holy Talon. But as I have said before the wielder does not have free reign with the weapon."

"What do you mean by that?" asks the four.

Faldren replies, "As it is a weapon of justice and is alive, it has the gift of sensing the auras of those around it, and it could read hearts, souls, minds, and natures the same way you would read a book. As such it will not wound or kill those who have committed no crimes, those who are innocent of any wrong doing, those who are of pure hearts, natures, and souls, and those who are good in heart, nature, and soul. As such the weapon will not be used to kill or murder innocent lives, no matter how much the wielder may force it, it may cut armor and clothes, but never the flesh of the innocent and pure. If the wielder becomes corrupted, then the Holy Talon will disown the owner and fade away to be found by another, of course it will kill those who are evil instantly. Another limitation is the fact that its powers, while immense are not limitless, when the magic of the sword is drained in a great fashion, it will take time to recharge it's reserves, that also goes for the essences of the Dragon Champions who reside in the sword. Once that happens, depending on the drain, the Holy Talon will not be able to create spells, or summon at all. It will retain its martial and physical qualities but its mystical powers will take time.

"You might noted that some of the people couldn't lift the sword when you handed it to them, that is a built-in defense for the Holy Talon, as well as a worthiness enchantment, if the ones who hold it are of pure and uncorrupted hearts of good, but not chosen by it, the weapon will become too heavy to lift no matter how strong they may be… however, the reaction of Holy Talon to those of evil natures who try to take is another matter."

Showing interest as he writes in his notepad, Pr. Colbert asks "Why?" "Let's just say it is a far from pleasant experience when they attempt to hold the sword," smirks Faldren.

Saito admits "I somehow sensed that Guiche may be a playboy, but he still loves his girlfriend, Montmorency; I wouldn't take his life for something as low as two-timing."

"Before moving on to this Death Fang, what about the items we both possessed that were changed by that Magic Fire this morning, including my clothes?" asks Louise.

"Apparently," replies Faldren "the sword saw fit to improve your belongings in the room to fit with several standards in the foreseeable future for you two and the future of this world. Your garments and undergarments, young maiden, for example couldn't fit anymore and the Magic Fire was attracted to your reserve of it implanted in you as you ran around your room in surprise, therefore changing everything it touched. It also transformed the belongings on you, champion, in your knapsack, including your interesting mechanical book into a more powerful version of its former self after much personal study."

"Well, that's convenient" scoffs Saito. Louise shrugs, "I guess."

The dragon continues, "As for Death Fang, it possesses the same level of power as Holy Talon, but is imbued with dark and unholy energies and is corruption incarnate wielding dark magic and evil energy, Like Holy Talon, it too can contain and release the essence of the previous Dragon Champions who wielded in generations passed, allowing the current wielder to have the powers, skills, and abilities of those who used it before. But it is filled with hatred, malice, greed, corruption, anger, bloodlust, the desire to kill, subjugate, and dominate all life.

"Death Fang therefore does not make distinctions on its victims, it will kill anyone, regardless if they are good, evil, or innocent, all it does is obey the order of it's wielder to kill without mercy. And as such its wielder revels in death, bloodshed and warfare… becoming a merciless berserker.

"As I said earlier, years before, the last Dragon Champions who wielded both Holy Talon and Death Fang fought in Dragon's Basin, a large rocky valley and in the end of the battle the swords were sent far away by a maelstrom of magic and judging by the fact you wield the Holy Talon… then both swords are now here in your world. If that is the case, then you must be ready, wielder… for there will come a time that one from this world will meet the needs of Death Fang and when that happens, the Chaos Dragon Champion will arise and seek you out… when it does happen, you must be ready, and so should the others."

Louise gasps in horror… now she's _really_ done it; if she hadn't chose to become a mage, then Saito would've remained in his home world and such a epic war would not come to her world. Now that she had summoned him and now that he possesses Holy Talon, Death Fang may awaken soon and then eventually a war will soon erupt and everyone else from her world will be caught in the middle… all because she's involved in the summoning of it. She can rub off her schoolmates calling her 'Zero' because of her ineptitude at using magic, but now she's fearing to face her entire world blaming her for summoning that its inhabitants couldn't even dare to comprehend, conceive, quantify, clarify, calibrate, confront, or compromise with.

Louise falls to the ground, "Oh great Brimir… what have I done?"

Everyone looks to the distraught noble as she cries.

"I shouldn't have become a mage!" cries Louise "My spells are always big flops, I've got no affinity to any elements in the ways of magic of my world, I'm a loser even for an noble, and when I sought to summon a great familiar to prove to everyone that I'm not a 'Zero' instead I summoned a harbinger of war from another world with a weirdo chosen by fate as my familiar and a champion of justice! I've got no place anymore!"

Pr. Colbert is about to say otherwise when Faldren speaks to her "Don't say that, young maiden. You may not have summoned a familiar you would've preferred and you may have as well led Death Fang here with your familiar summoning spell unintentionally, but you do have redeeming qualities that you have not yet discovered."

Saito had gulped when he earlier realized that there's such another sword in existence here on this world now and that if it was ever found and chose a wielder, then everything was going to change and certainly not for the better. But he quickly decided that he is not going to back down, he would never allow it.

"Faldren's right, Louise!" says Saito.

Everyone looks at Saito.

"I may have been a commoner by your world's standards originally, but even if I hadn't found Holy Talon I would've still confronted Guiche and still fought him in the duel under my own power to humble him! I may not have the etiquette you'd like but even other aristocrats looked you down and I cannot stand for that! The rules you had in mind set for all this may be very unpleasant in my opinion but I would still not stand it and make my own path through it all! I may not have as many redeeming skills as you would expect, but I am going to do everything I can at my best! Holy Talon asked me if there was something worth protecting I would give my life to protect it, I would and now I have your world to help! So far I may have seen you as an annoying bratty noble… but your summoning of me must be for a very good reason."

Turning to Faldren, Saito states out loud "So don't you worry about a thing, Faldren! I will be ready! Whoever finds Death Fang will soon know they will be facing me; Saito Hiraga, familiar of Louise Francoise Le Blanc De Le Valliere and the new Holy Dragon Champion!"

Louise feels her doubts fade away as she smiles. Pr. Colbert and Osmond smile and nod, acknowledging their hopes and support to Saito. From her hiding spot, Siesta smiles, enchanted by the dedication Saito's got to defend what's truly right, like a knight from out of a fairy tale.

Faldren smiles as he looks at the young man, "You have spirit… now only time will tell if you have what it takes to face your new destiny as Dragon Champion… now I must leave, my time in the material plane is at an end… if you need my help, and I am up to it, then call on me when you can."

With that, the Dragon Lord glows once more and in the same way he arrived, he leaves the four standing there. Saito and Louise blink and then the chosen Champion walks over to Holy Talon and reaches out and grasps its handle and took out the sword as Osmond walks over and pats his hand on Saito's shoulder.

He says to the two, "It seems you both have a long road ahead of you, and I think you should be getting ready."

Saito nods, "I will be more than ready, sir." "I guess I can apply this Holy Dragon magic in my studies back in school as a substitute for that of our world" nods Louise.

Pr. Colbert also speaks up, "Also, if we find out that the slightest possibility that you, Ms. Valliere, may have an affinity to at least element of our world's magic, we'll get it straight to you." "Thank you, Pr. Colbert" smiles Louise lightly.

"Let's head back to the academy," says Osmond "but please do not mention this meeting to any of your classmates for now… until you enough trust in them well enough to do this again. I doubt they or anyone at the palace are ready to meet a Dragon Lord, and neither was I for sure."

They then move on back to the academy after Saito sheathes his sword.

Unknown to them… Siesta who had witnessed everything leaves her hiding place she had and now quickly rushes back, trying to look innocent, but her mind is in fact reeling from what she had learned. She also tries to contain herself and focus on the task at hand as she decides to get back to her job at the academy.

—

Later that afternoon, Pr. Colbert finds someone at the locked door to the treasury.

"Who's there?" demands Pr. Colbert "What are you doing here? Show yourself!"

The person he finds before it is Ms. Longueville turning toward him.

"Ms. Longueville!" gasps Pr. Colbert "Why are you here?"

"Ah, Pr. Colbert" says Ms. Longueville "I just thought I'd come and catalogue the treasury. But I forgot about borrowing the key from Old Osmond." She then turns to leave, "I guess I was a bit careless. Now if you'll excuse me—"

Pr. Colbert catches up with her, "Ah, just a moment, please!"

Catching her attention, she turns to him asking "Is something the matter?" "No," replies Pr. Colbert "I thought… would it be alright if you would have dinner with me?"

"Sure" smiles the headmaster's secretary "It would be my pleasure."

"Really?" blushes Pr. Colbert, showing his slight attraction to her.

On their way to dinner…

"Hey, Pr. Colbert" speaks up Ms. Longueville "Do you know of the 'Staff of Destruction'?"

"Yes," nods the professor "I've seen the item itself before; it's one of the most unusual things I've ever seen and strangely shaped as well. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to explain it to the best of my knowledge."

"Oh, I see" nods Ms. Longueville "even so, the treasury itself is quite brilliant, isn't it?" "That's right," proudly nods Pr. Colbert "we have square-class mages that have designed all kinds of deterrent magic. But I think there may be one weakness to it."

"Oh really?" asks a curious Ms. Longueville, "I thought that the treasury would be impenetrable. What kind of weakness would that be?" "Well," shrugs Pr. Colbert "I think that it's vulnerable to great physical force, you would need the strength of an army to break into it."

Ms. Longueville is silent for a bit, then she asks "What about the young man? You know; Ms. Valliere's sword-wielding familiar?" "Not much on the boy or his sword I'm afraid," says Pr. Colbert, intending to keep the secret "I'm afraid nobody will know the limits or the capabilities it has until we see them for ourselves."

Silence taking her over again, Ms. Longueville sighs in a bit of silent disappointment.

"But before that," smiles Pr. Colbert "let's enjoy a full course of the world's delicacies, shall we? The school's cook knows me quite well, so we can have anything made for us!" Perking up now, Ms. Longueville giggles a bit "Oh, that would be inconsiderate! I'm perfectly fine with the daily menu!" "Oh really?" chuckles a bashful professor.

—

Louise is personally trying to get used to the fact that Saito's risen from the status of peasantry thanks to his more important duty as Holy Dragon Champion, while at the same time Saito understands that he's now responsible for the safety of all that is good within his reach ever since he had been christened Dragon Champion while getting used to the fact that Louise's role of being his first guardian follower of equal status and rank now.

Siesta walks up to him and asks Louise "Would it be alright if I speak to your familiar, Ms. Valliere?" "You have permission, Ms. Siesta" sighs Louise, closing the door behind her.

Turning to Saito, Siesta bows apologizing "I so very sorry!" Saito blinks and asks "For what, Siesta?"

Siesta explains herself, "Earlier today… I couldn't do anything… except run for help… thinking you couldn't win against a noble. Instead of placing my faith in you, I got scared and was about to run away to get help. Because the way things are for my world… when commoners who could not use magic… I thought you couldn't win against a noble. B-But, suddenly I'm not scared anymore. Because… you won, I was inspired! Sure, it may've been your newly acquired magical sword of justice that's supported your will but you've given me the belief and feeling that I can do anything, all thanks to you! So, I'm going to try my hardest too!"

Saito is surprised by her confession, "S-Si-Siesta…"

Hearing someone clearing her throat, the two turn to find Louise coming out her door.

"I'm going to have dinner in the dining hall," she says clearly "do what you want including feeding yourself. But whatever else you want to do, let it be within reason." Then she walks softly to the dining hall.

Blinking in surprise first, Saito says "Okay."

—

In the kitchen, Saito is eating heartily like it was Thanksgiving, for the leftovers from the dinner this night comes after blue ribbon-worthy stew made by Siesta for him. As luck would have it, she managed to save two more slices of cake for him. She's much pleased to have one of them when he gives the second slice to her.

"Man!" smiles Saito "save for this, those nobles don't know what they're missed."

The middle-aged and big but jolly head cook, Marteau, guffaws in delight "Glad to hear that you enjoy it! Eat up, Our Sword!"

"Huh?" blinks Saito "'Our Sword'?"

Marteau explains "When you stood up to the nobles without flinching, you've shown a strength and an illuminating aura that touched us to our very cores! You've brought out proof that even to those stuck-up mages a power that will give us moral strength to make us not sway. Even the known nobles could not hold a candle to the power you have yourself."

The other commoner servants nod proudly in agreement.

"Why not the 'Champion of the Peasantry' or something like that?" asks Saito.

"Well," shrugs Marteau, not losing his smile "we have that as a nickname more than a title, but I guess that would be a more formal title."

Saito says before resuming eating, "Good point."

"Also," continues the heavyset head chef "your modesty outshines your pride, making you not stuck-up like the other nobles!"

Holding a purloined bottle of wine, another member of the cooking staff walks up to Saito and she asks him "We've heard from Siesta that your sword couldn't be held by any one of the nobles. May I examine it?"

Saito shrugs in response, unsheathing Holy Talon and placing it gently on the ground.

One by one, each other commoner in the kitchen tries his or her luck in lifting the holy dragon sword only to find it impossible to even budge it by even one millimeter.

"Whoa!" exclaims Marteau, being the last of those who tried their hands in lifting the sword, as he massages his hands proudly "and we can tell you must be very strong, even if this sword would be an example. It's also amazing that someone like us commoners can even be chosen by such powerful magical items like your sword!"

Gulping another amount of his food down, Saito surmises "I take it someone got curious and went to see what the private discussion between Pr. Colbert, Old Osmond, Louise, and I was about and followed us because he or she wanted to listen and saw the very creator of Holy Talon explain everything to us and told you about it."

Siesta gasps in response, Saito somehow deduced that someone has eavesdropped on their private conversation.

"I'm sorry—" starts a guilty Siesta, but Saito takes hold of her hand silencing her and shakes his head with a smile "It's alright; I feel that there are some worlds that have follow the phrase 'doesn't follow the way things are on this world', including the world I originate and my sword's. Besides, I have complete trust in you."

Surprised at first, Siesta smiles with content "Thank you, Saito."

"That goes for everyone here in the kitchen too" smiles Saito, confiding his similar trust in them, bringing them even brighter spirits than their prior enlightenment.

Finishing his meal, Saito says to them "Let me tell you of the legend of Hercules, the mighty hero of Greece, and his 12 labours…"

—

In the noble's dining hall, Louise is still mulling over the sudden changes in her life. She, at first, wanted to make her mark in history on her world, now that she summoned a familiar with a weapon that chose him that allows him to surpass every known standard of her world, as well as draw in an excessively deadly force that will eventually awaken and introduce terrors that existed before to even anything magical was introduced to her world by Brimir the Founder. Saito was an ordinary person before all this, he could've rejected the sword due to his defiant attitude toward her earlier but now things are different and she couldn't risk involving any innocents suffer any such horror and she doesn't know who would accept such a burden Saito now bears on his shoulders with Holy Talon, despite being broadened.

Then she gets an image of what he may look without his transformed sweatshirt in her head, it is then followed by the urge to sniff for any alluring musky scent around his neck, and then—

Shaking her head back to her senses, she asks herself internally '_What in the Founder's name am I thinking? Zerbst is the loose one, not me!_' then she immediately compares herself to Kirche, grabbing her newly expanded assets '_At least I've got something about these new changes that beat everything she's got, thanks to Holy Talon._'

Then her thoughts return to the more important changes in her life and the future of the world.

"How's Saito?" asks Kirche, coming up to her with Tabitha. Still slightly troubled about Death Fang's fated coming in the future, Louise sighs and half-truthfully replies to her "He's just fine, we just made some amazing discoveries about his sword and our transformations. I did have half a mind to punish him for doing something reckless, but something else came up."

"Punish!" exclaims Kirche in shock "As a man, Saito was standing up not only for himself, but also for you."

"What about the fact that Guiche went so far as to refuse accepting an apology?" asks Louise, trying to be like everything's still in the status quo regardless, "My swordsman familiar even had the nerve to use a nobleman's action and conduct about duels without any regards for his life. His rebellious attitude is still going to drag me down with him!"

Tabitha stoically says, "Otherworldly… and foreign." "I bet Tabitha's right;" says Kirche "he's not from our world and neither is his sword obviously. Think about it: I've heard from the fourth year students that the professors were startled by the level of power he wielded both at his duel with Guiche and the moment you summoned him, he got them wince in concern and no one we know here can command or lift that sword of his. Plus if you were dragged from a home you were familiar with to someplace new and told to do against your will, wouldn't you act the same way? I mean being told what that someone wants you to do for her or him would not be a healthy start of a relationship or win friends. Not to mention all of the sudden changes in your life and to your body, you may have some difficulties compromising with them."

Louise keeps silent at the news, knowing she learned it firsthand but is at the same time surprised that Kirche could be wise in details to point out. She may be rivals with the busty redhead, but she is surprised with her few points of wisdom she shows from time to time.

Louise then sees a bouquet of red roses coming in her direction, she uses both hands catch it and then see Guiche is the one giving them to her. "G-Guiche…" she starts "what's with this bouquet?"

Guiche, feeling very humble and shy, answers her "Please pass them on to Sir Saito, Ms. Valliere, they're for him."

"That familiar of yours humbled him greatly" says Montmorency, walking to her on-off boyfriend's side "even though he's a noble, he feels to have found a sense of _friendship_ with that powerful swordsman. Isn't it perfect since neither of them had friends before in their lives?"

Embarrassed, Guiche wails "MONTMORENCY!"

'_Friends?_' thinks Louise '_that's right; because of me, I've separated him from his home in a world where magic is make-believe to his people, tearing him from his normal life and forcing him into upholding such a sacred and divine duty, and who knows if Dragern's war that will extend to our world would come to his world if I hadn't dragged those two things here. I'm still a harbinger that will need to atone for the biggest disaster I ever done in my life. Plus, I don't think any of my classmates can believe the truth, much less handle it._'

Then she turns her eyes to her room, thinking about other things about the possible things to happen. Usually with her, should anything great would make her feel proud and expect only the advantages in her point of view of the future, but now she's thinking of all the consequences and dangers that could lie ahead.

—

Later that evening, Saito is walking with Siesta finishing the stories he's telling her on his way back to Louise's room since he's got no other residence to rest in.

Siesta walks off, with her spirits heightened and inspired, leaving Saito to wait at Louise's door as he didn't have the key to open it.

Saito asks his sword, "Did you insert all that information of the legends of Hercules and Momotarou from my home world into my head, Holy Talon?" '_Remember that Dragon Fire incident throughout Louise's room this morning?_' speaks his sword '_I may have transformed your mechanical book, or laptop computer as you call it, in your rucksack into a more powerful version which can give you all the means to connect with your home world._' "Oh! So in doing so, you've placed a few of my world's folk hero stories from my world in my head in a precise fashion" concludes Saito.

'_Exactly._'

As soon as he reaches Louise's door, he notices the alligator-sized flame-tailed salamander named Flame looking at him. The mystical reptile/fire elemental blinks at him as it notices him.

"Uh…" says Saito, unsure why Flame is taking up a small portion of the hall "Can I help you… Flame, is it?"

Flame croaks before lunging at the newly christened Holy Dragon Champion quite rapidly and knocks him to the ground. Grunting as he pushes himself up, Saito asks "What's up with you, big fella?"

Flame clamps his mouth on Saito's collar as he drags Saito down the hall quickly.

Saito asks his sword telepathically, '_Why aren't you weighing me down like you did with the others who tried to lift you?_' '_It doesn't count if he's the one carrying you while I'm carried by you. I'm sorry, master_' answers Holy Talon.

'_Doesn't count?_'

Flame continues to drag Saito down the hall and then through an open door and into a dark room. Saito then notices that the room is lit with only a few candles, setting a somewhat intimate atmosphere. Flame lets go of Saito's collar and goes to a corner in the room to watch the proceedings. Saito stands up to get his bearings, but then he sees Kirche sitting in her bed, looking back at him.

"What a woman…" gasps Saito quietly.

Kirche is in silky purple lingerie that leaves nothing to the imagination but makes her intent obvious. It looks like a sheer nightgown that reaches to mid-thigh, but it's open at the front to reveal her purple panties and is only tied enough to keep her breasts from bouncing free.

'_Okay, I'm finding my promise to Faldren kind of hard to keep right now_' gulps Saito, knowing Kirche's intent.

"Good boy, Flame," says Kirche to her familiar who released Saito, petting it like a good pet dog. Saito stands up and dusts off his clothes and tries to keep his eyes above her neck level, trying to ignore his manhood. Controlling his hormones is a hard task compared to his college exams. She looks at Saito and seductively says "Welcome to my lovely room, Dragon Champion Saito Hiraga."

"Uh… thanks" replies Saito sheepishly "So… why have you brought me here?"

Saito's not stupid, since it seems pretty obvious to him; a girl doesn't bring a boy to her room and dress as provocatively as Kirche had with the simple intent of having a simple chat or doing homework. Still, he hopes to distract her enough with talking to see just how seriously she's going to take this, and maybe get some advice from his holy sword concerning the situation thrust upon him.

Saito quickly discovers she is going to be taking the situation very seriously. Kirche immediately presses herself against his chest, making sure he can feel every curve and bounce of her breasts. "Isn't it obvious? I'm in love~" purrs Kirche. She wraps her arms behind his neck, hoisting herself to bring her luscious lips leveled with his ear as she seductively whispers into it "My runic name is The Ardent. Like a torch, I am quick to ignite and burn brightly." She trembles against Saito as she brings her lips dangerously close to his, seeing how her feet can no longer feel the ground, "Seeing those magical flames you project in the Vestri Court and everything they touched having life burst around it, it resonated so deeply inside of me. It instantly transformed me from Kirche The Ardent into Kirche The Passionate," she whispers, drawing closer to him.

Saito gulps nervously, "I take it you also want to catch onto the same fire I've got?" "Mmm-hmm" nods Kirche. "What were your previous thoughts when you first saw of me and how do you know of the entitlement I've been given?" Her eyes widen in surprise in response "I didn't make that up just now?" "Every chosen wielder of the Holy Talon, which I'm carrying, bares the title of Dragon Champion," admits Saito.

Letting go of him and looking thoughtful, she thinks out loud "Hmm… a magical artifact of great power connect to a higher power connected to dragons who chooses its wielder and dubs the subject the current champion… that would explain the massive dragon-shaped burst of energy we've seen upon your summoning and the intense magical fire you gave off." Then she smiles seductively, and says "Oh, I've just got to have you" as she wraps her arms around his waist while pressing herself against his chest, with him being about half a head taller than her, he's feeling her ample bosom being pressed against the top of his abdominal muscles.

'_Kami-sama, she's hot!_' sighs Saito, with his male hormones reacting '_Here's a hot, tanned, and busty redhead literally throwing herself at me and even if it was only for one night I am sorely tempted to let her do what she wants to do with me. When would I honestly ever get this kind of chance again?_' Saito's hands grasp her hips almost automatically as she had drawn herself closer, anticipating the kiss she was aiming for…

Saito's own conscience and hesitation takes over, '_No! I should not do this; what if by giving into the sin of lust I would also lose my right as Champion?_'

"I'm sorry," apologizes Saito gently, surprising Kirche as he explains to her "I don't think I should be doing this" her mouth is left gaping in surprise, as they look at each other eye-to-eye "It's not that I'm not flattered or find you unappealing, it's just that we've just met, Kirche-san, and I find this a tad too soon for me."

Losing all feeling of embarrassment and shock, Kirche giggles excitedly "Then let's get to know each other…" then she uses a freed arm to heave and pronounce her big bosom to him "intimately."

Then suddenly, they hear someone calling from Kirche's window, utterly ruining the moment she was going for between them "Kirche! You weren't at our meeting place when you said you would be! Who the heck is this guy?-!"

They both blink and turn to her window and spot a male student with short spiked brown hair with sideburns floating outside. He is looking pretty upset at the newcomer in Kirche's room, although he's not seeing Saito's face.

"Oh! Sticks!" gasps Kirche, seemingly remembering something. Smiling weakly, she speaks up to him, "We'll meet two hours from now." "But that isn't what you said before!" cries the student named Sticks.

Saito steps into Sticks' view, much to the male student's sudden sense of alarm, "Who the heck is that?"

Kirche rolls her eyes and produces her wand from inside her nightgown. She waves it slightly before the flame on one of the candles shoots out and takes the form of a snake and collides with Sticks' forehead and sent him tumbling down to the ground, which is three floors down.

Saito felt kind of sympathetic for the poor guy, but not enough to muster completely. Sticks' acknowledgement of his welfare is assured when he says, "I'm okay! My flight spell broke my fall! I didn't know you were with Louise's powerful familiar instead."

"Wow," blinks Kirche "I guess I shouldn't have done that if he saw you if I knew it was going to happen." "You think?" remarks Saito sarcastically.

Getting to the point, Saito asks "If you don't _have_ a boyfriend, then who the heck was that guy? Friend of yours?" "Yes" nods Kirche. Saito groans, "It was a rhetorical question."

"Kirche!"

They turn and spot another person floating at the window, this one with glasses and chin-length blond hair. He spots Saito, remembers his duel with Guiche and chuckles sheepishly "Maybe some other night since you're busy with him?" Seeing it easy and less harmful, Kirche nods in response, having the young male fly away for the night.

"Another friend?" asks Saito rhetorically.

"Yes," Kirche nodded, turning her attention back to Saito "Now let us not waste any more time. It is only you and me and that is how it is going to stay."

"Oh really?" frowns Saito, getting suspicious.

He then hears Holy Talon snicker at the antics, '_We never said anything about never having lovers or families. I've had masters in the past who were lecherous or even promiscuous ones like Lady Kirche there. There were even a few masters of mine that had multiple wives._'

'_On second thought,_' thinks Saito '_my promise to Lord Faldren is starting to look tougher to break than I thought it would be._'

"KIRCHE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?-! YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"

Both of them turn back to the window, this time finding three more boys crowding at the ledge trying to get the redhead's attention. They are torn between gazing longingly at her and shooting dark looks at Saito.

"Manica! Ajax! Gimli! Um…" Kirche is getting annoyed with herself for forgetting the flings she had set out for before Saito, she really wants to have a sexual escapade with him even before his sudden transformation from youthful adult cute to drop-dead gorgeous and perfectly built, but with all these interferences, she's losing ideas for a good excuse so she could ditch her past fling-mates and get with her planned fornication with Saito.

The boys fly off in fear at the sight of Saito, who is looking much less interested in physical pleasure at the moment, in her room with her.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous!" groans Saito "Looks like it turns out that nobility isn't as great as it's cracked up to be."

"Now," says Kirche, readjusting herself "where were—" she trails off, noticing Saito is leaving for the door in a huff "Hey! Where are you going?"

He stops in his tracks for a second and replies "Back to Louise's room, since I've got nowhere else to go; she may as well get worried about me or get the wrong idea. Now that I see from Guiche's playboy behavior and your ridiculous quest for a perfect bedmate as an example of aristocracy in this world, I say that I have had enough of this."

Kirche stiffens in shock at the brush-off he's giving her, like an arrow struck her from behind, remembering his duel with Guiche was started because the skirt-chaser was flirting with so many women their age, now he's comparing her fooling around to his womanizing, only worse.

Flame quickly moves between Saito and the door, croaking to him "Please don't be harsh on her!"

"You can talk?" blinks Saito in surprise.

'_Actually,_' says Holy Talon to its master '_as a Dragon Champion, you've been given a mystical ability to comprehend the languages of dragons far and wide, even those remotely familiar like Flame the salamander, master. It's really rare to achieve it so quickly in most cases._'

Amazed, Saito looks to the salamander and chats with it.

Snapping out of her shock, Kirche notices Saito speaking a different language with her own familiar and her loyal lizard appears to comprehend every strange syllable like it was a second language to him.

He stands up and turns left, facing a wall, while mentally communicating with his weapon and partner—

Saito asks the holy weapon, '_What should I do, Holy Talon?_' '_I will transfer knowledge of such matters into your head to calm her heart and help you make peace with her, master_' answers the holy dragon sword made by Faldren.

Saito closes his eyes almost meditatively as he allows the minuscule amount of selected knowledge from several past Holy Dragon Champions that Holy Talon allowed go into his mind.

Finally opening his eyes, Saito turns to Kirche and steps toward her until he's about a complete pace away from her.

Saito looks into Kirche's amazed eyes as he speaks to her, "I appreciate the affection you show, but after seeing your dates by the window, it's just that we're too different from each other: you were born an aristocrat, living your life in peace and in the status quo while ignorant of the possibilities outside of your personal little universe, while I on the other hand was a regular guy in my world living quietly looking for something better in life and unaware of magic's existence until I was summoned here and received my sword, the Holy Talon, along the way. In a way, fate has selected _me_ to carry it for a purpose."

'_Now it is time let her down, master_' whispers Holy Talon mentally '_gently._'

Saito wraps his arms around her waist softly, taking her by surprise some more.

Then, like a pair of ballroom dancers, they spin about until both are in the moonlight pouring in through the window. Saito keeps my back to the light while he stares down at her, with one hand holding hers while another is wrapped around her waist. She is then feeling further surprised, but that quickly turns into a saucy smile of anticipation, she thinks she has him, at least a little.

His sword and partner has taught him that if normal speech wouldn't seem to get through to someone like her, then perhaps something of a more romantic era would get through to her.

Within his moonlight shadow gazing down at her, Saito says to her "You truly deserve your new runic entitlement, o Kirche the Passionate, in a variety of ways."

"Oh yes…" sighs an enchanted Kirche breathlessly, "but the flames you're feeding are more grand than I first anticipated… you have me."

Saito then picks her up, having her toes dance in the air, and trails his fingers through her hair as he whispers into her ear "But… the fire you've displayed earlier worries me. With all those flings that arrived earlier, I'm worried that eventually if you were just saying it to just treat me as more coal to your beautiful flames. I have seen five poor fellow men who were victims of the flames of your passion."

Kirche's eyes widen at that, then she says to him "Please don't worry, Darling…" she then rubs her body against his sensually as she tries to find the right words, but she then gets lost as she looks deep into his eyes again only to once more have them capture her first, hook, line and sinker.

The notorious amorous redhead of Tristain's academy of magic is now feeling something igniting deep in her heart as it pounds powerfully within her breast.

Saito slowly lets her feet touch the ground again, some of the silvery green flames of Dragon Fire from before temporarily bursts through from Holy Talon in its sheath, plus some extra pops up from Saito's hands. He pets Flame with one flaming hand and uses one to take a free hand from Kirche and kiss it.

"I bid you good night, Kirche the Passionate" smiles Saito, finally leaving her room.

Kirche, surprised at the chivalry Saito's shown her coupled with her feeling actual love for someone aside from lust, lands in her bed while clutching her palpitating with one hand, then she turns to look at the small flickers of the mysterious Dragon Fire seep into her hand without harming it.

"Oh, Dragon Champion…" sighs Kirche, feeling actual pure love "you have stolen my heart."

—

Saito returns to Louise's room, and then looks in it to find Louise in her bed, still contemplating about her rather _interesting_ day.

Noticing him, she asks him "I suppose you were taken away by Kirche temporarily. Is that true?"

"She did want to bed me," admits Saito "I was sorely tempted to give in to her advances, but I resisted and later discovered that she has flings so many times that she would forget her schedules. Surprisingly, I've seen five of them and they went away when they saw me, remembering my duel with Guiche today."

"I'm not surprised," scoffs Louise "who would want to mess with someone who would most likely trudge quickly through any spell they'd cast with barely any effect and then deliver a bone-breaking punch to the nose? Now everyone acknowledges that you're not from around here and will defy any aristocrat who would be against what you believe in, especially me on a bad day."

Saito sighs out, "I've also learned quickly from Holy Talon that Dragon Champions are allowed to have families and lovers, nothing wrong with it. Just so long as they don't give into the dark side of lust." "I should hope so," says Louise.

Then Louise asks him "Do you miss your home?" "Yeah," nods Saito.

Saito looks into his backpack and pulls out a strange book-shaped mostly plastic device, then he whispers to himself "I wonder if this used to be my laptop computer."

Louise then says, "You need another sword." "Excuse me?" asks Saito.

She explains "Holy Talon is too strong for ordinary weapons, it would just cut through them at the first moment in a fair duel. For more honorable opponents, wouldn't you want to give them a better chance?"

'_Lady Louise raises a valid point, master_' agrees Holy Talon.

Saito nods, "Okay, Louise. When do we get it?"

"On the day after tomorrow," says Louise "I've got classes tomorrow and it's the Day of the Void the day after it, we would have time off on it." "Oh, like the weekend breaks back in my world!" smiles Saito.

Then she asks "Is it possible for Holy Talon to instill knowledge of certain spells into another's head? Just in case if I mess up with another spell tomorrow?" '_Just go to sleep, Lady Louise, and you will know the basic spells from Dragern_' replies Holy Talon.

—

On the next day, the day before the Day of the Void break, Saito is following Louise while examining his newly transmogrified portable computer. All the onlookers they get back off or greet them politely without teasing either of them.

In an earth magic class, down at the bottom of the podium-like room, class is in session. The teacher is a somewhat older woman who wears what a regular person from Saito's world would consider as stereotypical witch attire; she's wearing a simple black dress with a purple cloak over it held with a simple tie. Over her whitening brown hair, which is tied in a bun, she's also wearing a purple witch's brimmed hat. Her name is Professor Ginerva Chevreuse, and her runic name is 'the Red Clay'.

Saito, sitting next to Louise, observes the 40-something-year-old teacher perform a spell of alchemic transmutation of a sizable but simple rock on her desk into a lump of brass, which some classmate of Louise's mistakes for gold until the professor corrects him, saying that only square class mages in earth magic can truly turn a rock into gold.

She even explains, "The magic of Earth is very important magic that governs the creation of all matter. If it wasn't for Earth magic, we wouldn't be able to produce or process necessary metals, raising buildings from large boulders and harvesting crops would also involve much more work. In this manner, the magic of the Earth element is intimately related to everyone's life."

Saito and Louise overhear Holy Talon mention to them, '_With some practice one master could turn mountains into perfect diamonds and boulder-sized lumps entirely made of gold, but they would eventually return to normal. Because the order of nature must be maintained._'

"Miss Valiere!" calls Pr. Chevreuse, changing the brass lump back into a stone "would you be so kind to demonstrate a transmutation spell? I'm sure you can turn this stone into glass."

'_She must be a newly hired professor,_' states Saito '_otherwise she would've been informed about certain problems and special news concerning some particular students._' 'Not now, Saito' thinks Louise toward him, trying telepathy '_I'm going to try my luck in this and if the spell I'm familiar with doesn't work, I'll try the Dragernian spell I've learned from Holy Talon._'

As Louise stands up to head to the front of the class, Kirche stands up and waves her arm to get the teacher's attention, "Uh, Prof. Chevreuse! You really shouldn't make Louise do this! She's—!"

"If I hear anyone call her a 'zero' again, I will stuff their mouths with clay," the aged woman replies sharply, holding her wand threateningly "This is hardly a difficult spell so even if Ms. Valliere has difficulty in casting I really doubt she would face a challenge in this." She then turned to see Louise standing at her seat. "If you please then, Ms. Valliere?"

"Okay, I can do this…" whispers Louise to herself as she walks to the front of the classroom and up to the rock. She takes her out her wand and points it at the rock. Saito watches as magic began to glow from her wand as she put it through the motions, and chants the incantation in the tongue familiar to the natives of her world.

'_Didn't Lady Louise admit she was inept in the known spells of her world?_' asks Holy Talon '_According to her memory, the blunders she makes causes explosions instead of the proper effects of most of the simpler or more mundane spells?_'

Saito takes heed of it and draws his sword the second he spots a dangerous glow coming from the stone she's directing her magic toward.

Seeing the glow from the stone she's casting a spell on, Louise panics '_Oh no! The transmutation spell native to my world's magic is happening too fast!_' Then she sees Saito stopping next to her, with Holy Talon drawn.

"**Dragon Scale Containment**!" calls out Saito.

Energy forms around the glowing stone in the shape of hexagonal scales, like that of a dragon's own scale pattern, the glowing shield surrounded the stone in a complete spherical form.

BOOM!

The muffled sound of an explosion is heard, earning the surprise of Louise's classmates.

The stone contained is revealed to be reduced to 3 sizable shards as the containment spell Saito cast on it disperses.

The class then murmurs possibilities of Saito being an aristocrat and a mage like them, possibly trained to be an elite knight or something like that.

Louise sighs in disappointment, '_I guess my ability to use magic, while hastened and augmented, is still inept. Thanks for the containment, though._' '_Try again, but with the Dragernian version!_' encourages Saito.

Louise sighs and looks to the professor, "Let me try again, please?" "Are you sure?" asks Pr. Chevreuse. Louise nods in response.

Louise puts her wand away and places her hand up to the three rock shards. A different form of magic began to glow from her hand as she put it through the motions, chanting an incantation in a language completely unfamiliar with everyone else in the classroom, save for Saito and Holy Talon.

Narrowing an eye, Kirche asks Tabitha "Is this still the same Louise the Zero we remember?"

As Louise finishes the incantation, she says in the native language "Bring forth balls of glass and metal worthy of the current champion of Faldren from these fragments, bearer of all earthen materials."

Then the stone shards crackle in energy then within every 5 seconds they double in size.

"Oops!" gulps Louise "I guess I overdid the spell."

"What kind of spell is that?" asks Pr. Chevreuse "And what in the Founder's name is that language?"

As the stones grow into a size to match that of a car each, they fell off the professor's desk and continue to grow much to the other students' newfound fright.

As soon as the stone shards stop growing when they are each the size of small fighter planes, they start rumbling.

"They're gonna blow!" calls out one of Louise's classmates. A female student shrieks "Take cover!"

Everyone ducks to the floorboards and cover their heads to brace for the danger.

The three enlarged rocks then harmlessly crumble to dust, revealing three sizable lumps of an almost iridescent silvery metal and 6 perfect balls of glass within each enlarged stone fragment and then the dust flow into one place, reforming into the original rock shards.

'_The metal lumps are pure Orchaelium,_' says an amazed Holy Talon '_an ancient but powerful metal, very rare and very precious that's normally found only on Dragern. It goes by many names, but the most common one for it is 'Light Iron'. It is light as cloth, usually three times harder than steel, and as tough as a dragon's scales. Though not of the same caliber, it resembles the material of myself._'

Louise telepathically interjects '_But I was trying to transmute the shards into something else; not have them produce a lifetime supply of powerful metal! I've messed it up!_'

'_While that is true,_' replies the Holy Dragon Sword '_you've displayed a rather genuinely rare and extraordinary gift, Lady Louise: though you did put too much energy in the spell, you successfully produced something outside of your knowledge and created it in existence by using a few fragments of the earth element as a medium. Not very many can achieve such a feat._'

Everyone climbs up from cover and witness the achievement Louise performed.

An impressed Pr. Chevreuse applauds "Magnificent, Ms. Valliere!"

The astounded audience absentmindedly applaud softly to her.

"This is going to be a tiring back-up session," sighs Louise quietly. Saito nods "I agree."

To Be Continued…

The Magic Braches of Faldren's Side of Dragern: the branches speak for themselves—

*Body: this is a branch dedicated to improving the body in several ways, like and unlike Life magic as it does not heal in the truest sense, but unlocks the hidden power in the caster's body.

*Divine: it contains spells that combine all the named branches and is considered the hardest of all to use and it is also the most taxing, as combining several branches is considered difficult by most if not all standards.

*Focus: deals with realms of vision, both in the world of flesh and the world of magic, and even time and space.

*Life: this branch of magic deals with healing magic. The use of the green-silver flame is the first step example, but there are spells in this category that are truly powerful but are also very taxing and must be used only in truly dire situation.

*Mind: this is the same as Body, but deals with the mental attributes and talents of its master.

*Nature: this magic delves into nature itself, the very essence of the living world and works with Life Magic; it can summon nature allies such as animals or spirits, commanding the branches of the natural world to aid and shield others or to imbue certain gifts temporarily into others.

*Summoning: is obviously for summoning powerful allies, from groups of spirit soldiers to an entire spirit army, along with other Dragon allies.

*Transmutation/Enchanting: this is a branch that can create one thing from another, and or can imbue something or if needed. Someone with a level of power in this, in time, will be his or hers to use.


End file.
